UC-NRLF 


IDfl 


HE  GREAT 
SltALLCAT 

AND  OTHERS 

MAY  E.  SOUTHWORTH 


GIFT   OF 


THE  GREAT  SMALL  CAT 
AND  OTHERS 


JIMINY  CHRISTMAS:   HIS  FIRST 

APPEARANCE 

HE  WAS  PROBABLY  A  GRACELESS 
VAGABOND,    BORN    IN    THE   GUTTER,   WITH 
PRETENSIONS  TO  BREEDING  OR  EVEN 
GOOD  LOOKS 


NO 


THE  GREAT  SMALL 
CAT  •  AND  OTHERS 

Seven  Tales 


BY  MAY  E.  SOUTHWORTH 

ILLUSTRATED  FROM  PHOTOGRAPHS  AND 
DECORATED  BY  PEDRO  J.  LEMOS 


PAUL  ELDER  AND  COMPANY 
PUBLISHERS  SAN  FRANCISCO 


Copyright,  1914 

PAUL  ELDER  AND  COMPANY 

SAN  FRANCISCO 


IN  LOVING 

MEMORY  OF  THURSDAY 
MY  OWN 


302347 


INTRODUCTION 

EVERYONE  knows  that  there  are  all  kinds  of 
people;  also  there  are  all  kinds  of  cats,  worthy 
and  unworthy.  No  two  are  exactly  alike,  and  by 
those  who  do  not  class  them  in  a  bunch,  but  study 
them  as  individuals,  they  are  found  to  have  de- 
cided characteristics  all  their  own,  ever  presenting 
strange  surprises  in  a  mixture  of  the  unexpected 
higher  qualities  of  civilization  and  the  evils  of 
lowest  barbarism.  The  appeal  of  the  kitten  is  al- 
most universal,  as  there  are  few  men,  women  or 
children,  even  those  who  "shudder"  at  a  real  cat, 
who  can  resist  the  subtle  charm  of  these  fuzzy 
lumps  of  playfulness.  But  cats,  the  alley  cat,  your 
cat,  my  cat,  anybody's  cat,  all  cats  are  in  need  of 
some  brave  champion,  someone  who  will  endeavor 
to  portray  their  better  side  and  be  able  to  so 
increase  for  them  the  appreciation  of  mankind 
that  they  will  come  to  what  is  only  rightfully  their 
own.  Whatever  your  faith  or  practice  may  be 
touching  cats,  you  are  bound  to  admit  that  they 
must  surely  have  some  kind  of  mission  here  on 
earth.  The  trend  of  modern  beneficence  shows 
the  day  of  even  the  cat  is  on  the  way,  the  day 
when  they  shall  be  better  understood,  making  the 
iv o rid  kinder  to  them  in  recognizing  that  these 
often  sadly  abused  little  creatures,  have  the  feel- 
ings common  to  flesh  and  blood  and  are  times 
U'ithout  number,  actuated  by  human  thoughts  and 
impulses.  Recent  years  have  done  much  in  the 
way  of  atonement  for  persistent  error  in  regard 

[V] 


INTEODUCTION 

to  their  nature,  by  thrusting  upon  them  a  balance 
long  their  due  in  the  form  of  many  happy  literary 
tributes,  proving,  in  spite  of  much  withering  scorn, 
that  environment  has  much  more  to  do  with  their 
lack  of  worth  than  has  original  sin. 

The  lowly  state  of  the  average  cat,  just  toler- 
ated for  its  usefulness  as  a  natural  rat  execu- 
tioner, is  unworthy  of  its  better  capabilities,  and 
to  the  heart  of  a  lover  of  the  species,  a  cruelty. 
It  is  companionship  which  counts  the  most  with 
cats,  and  when,  instead  of  being  a  comfortable 
family  institution  as  was  intended,  their  nature 
being  of  the  warmest  and  most  sociable  kind,  they 
are  mercilessly  relegated  to  the  cold  cellar  or 
outhouse  to  battle  for  life  and  sustenance,  they 
are  more  miserable  than  anyone  can  imagine  who 
does  not  know  how  a  cat  longs  for  home  life  and 
company.  If  left  in  this  way  to  struggle  for  a 
meager  existence,  without  a  word  of  kindness,  and 
chased  for  their  very  lives  if  they  presume,  in 
their  lonely  longing,  to  timidly  enter  the  family 
refinement,  is  it  a  wonder  that  under  these  con- 
ditions, these  dwellers  in  solitude  develop  only 
the  worse  and  uglier  traits  in  their  disposition? 

Although  cats  are  brimful  of  human  whims 
and  moods  and  are  also  very  human  in  their  de- 
votion to  home,  order  and  cleanliness,  they  are 
decidedly  slow  in  attaching  themselves  to  humans 
and  not  quick  to  give  them  their  friendship.  Un- 
like a  dog,  they  maintain  a  rather  haughty  inde- 
pendence in  the  matter  of  reciprocity,  and  after 
they  have  decided  that  you  are  worthy  of  the 
honor  of  their  confidence,  and  they  have  given  it, 

[VI] 


INTRODUCTION 

it  can  only  be  retained  by  constant  entreaty  and  on 
the  strictest  terms  of  obligation,  never  forced.  To 
know  something  of  the  queer  brain  and  really 
glowing  heart  beneath  the  mystery  of  their  grace- 
ful furry  coats,  a  heart  which  they  guard  almost 
fiercely  against  mere  "curious"  intimacy,  it  is 
necessary  to  make  an  effort;  but  as  every  cat 
lover  knows,  they  will  surely  repay  such  effort 
in  lavish  response.  And  above  all,  in  trying  to 
get  acquainted  with  cats,  show  them  the  compli- 
ment of  companionship  which  they  truly  and  cor- 
dially appreciate,  for  they,  too,  are  in  various 
ways  "also  human"  and  their  readiness  to  re- 
spond to  intimacy  of  this  kind  is  a  most  gratify- 
ing surprise  to  the  skeptical. 


[vn] 


The  cat  tails  spring  up  in  the  hollow 
But  where  can  their  late  owners  be? 
The  tale  of  their  tails  does  not  follow 
When  cat  tails  spring  up  in  the  hollow. 
But  the  stream  many  secrets  must  swallow 
So  it  may  be  their  ghosts  that  we  see. 
So  when  cat  tails  spring  up  in  the  hollow 
We  surmise  where  their  owners  may  be. 

Thomas  Grant  Springer 


THE  TALES  IN  THIS  BOOK 

PAGE 

THE  GREAT  SMALL  CAT 3 

The  tale  of  the  black  "stray,"  whose  mother-love  and 
home-love  steeled  her  to  repeatedly  brave  the  waters  of 
the  dark,  swift-flowing  river,  and  how  this  "bunch  hard 
to  beat"  overcame  the  cold  heart  of  the  "widow  lady" 
of  the  ranch. 

THURSDAY 27 

The  orphan  foundling,  fed  from  a  spoon;  her  coquet- 
tish tyranny  over  her  friend  and  playmate,  a  magnifi- 
cent Irish  setter;  and  the  story  of  her  tragic  end  when 
answering  the  home-call. 

A  MIXE,  A  MIXER,  AXD  A  CAT       ....     43 

The  story  of  the  loyal  comradeship  of  the  miner  and 
the  cat,  and  of  how  Puss  proved  to  be  the  cleverer 
prospector  of  the  two  and  discovered  the  bonanza  mine. 

AIDA  AXD  SAADI 61 

Twin  blue-blooded  aristocrats,  whose  temperamental 
pranks  and  mischievous  adventures  caused  startling  sur- 
prises and  frequent  shocks;  their  marauding,  murder- 
ous transgressions  and  how  they  were  finally  cured. 

MAROOXED 77 

The  story  of  the  intense  hatred  of  the  shanghaied  cat; 
his  dignified  aloofness ;  his  "tabasco  temper"  over  the 
pranks  of  the  sailors;  and  his  final  survival  of  the 
wreck,  from  which,  after  braving  the  ocean  waves,  he 
reached  the  shore  and  gained  his  freedom  amid  the 
mystery  of  the  wild. 

MAIDA 99 

The  strange  but  true  story  of  the  Maltese  mother-cat 
who  adopted  a  brood  of  white  rats,  and  the  record  of 
her  disciplinary  methods  in  raising  and  controlling  her 
alien  foster-children. 

A  MEMORY 109 

The  tale  of  Jiminy  Christmas,  a  tramp  cat,  whose 
wild  and  vagabond  nature  caused  him  to  yield,  inter- 
mittently, to  the  call  of  the  open,  and  to  leave,  uncere- 
moniously, his  protected  home  of  plenty  and  comfort; 
his  last  pathetic  return. 

[XI] 


THE  PICTURES  IN  THIS  BOOK 

JIMINY  CHKISTMAS  : 

His  FIRST  APPEARANCE      .        .        .    Frontispiece 

He  was  probably  a  graceless  vagabond,  born  in  the 
gutter,  with  no  pretensions  to  breeding  or  even  good 
looks. 

FACING  PAGE 

THE  GREAT  SMALL  CAT 8 

Although  the  small  stray  was  minus  all  signs  of 
pedigree,  she  held  her  head  high  and  was  accorded 
the  respect  and  good  treatment  due  a  lady. 

THURSDAY 34 

As  she  never  attained  the  full  stature  of  an  ordinary 
cat,  she  always  looked  but  half-grown,  but  was  the 
very  perfection  of  dainty  symmetry,  her  coat  a  solid 
black,  almost  blue  in  its  depths. 

THE  CAT 52 

Handsome,  shining  and  saucy,  the  kitten  had  grown 
into  the  most  splendid  bigness  of  his  race:  all  muscle 
and  nerve,  unusually  broad  of  chest  and  looking  as  if 
bred  to  the  mountain  fastness  and  able  to  endure  all 
sorts  of  pioneer  hardships. 

AI'DA  AND  SAADI 72 

"Oh,  lady!  You  do  not  suspect  us  of  having  seen 
any  of  your  birds  this  morning  f" 

MAROONED 84 

Neither  disappointment  nor  ugly  temper  had  broken 
his  fierce  sense  of  injury  or  his  indomitable  spirit. 

MAIDA 102 

In  long-suffering  patience  Maida  would  stretch  herself 
in  a  streak  of  sunshine  and  survey  the  riotously  in- 
corrigible mites,  indulging  in  their  favorite  pastime  of 
playing  tag  all  over  her  body. 

JIMINY  CHRISTMAS,  THE  FREE  SPIRIT         .       .  120 

Born  free,  he  kept  his  own  wanton  will  free  from 
enslavement  to  the  end,  living  his  own  life  in  honor 
and  honesty  in  an  out- doors  all  his  own. 


[xm] 


THE  GREAT  SMALL  CAT 


THE  GREAT  SMALL  CAT 

ONCE  upon  a  time,  a  while  ago,  during  pleasant 
hours  spent  in  the  "land  of  big  cows  and 
small  horses, "  I  met  one  of  the  most  modest  of 
black  mother  cats,  but  one  with  such  a  pathetic 
experience  in  her  life  as  to  make  her  stand  alone, 
not  as  a  cat,  but  as  the  cat.  At  any  rate,  the 
story  as  told  by  the  young  ranchman  is  absolutely 
true  and  surely  worth  the  telling,  if  only  to  prove 
that  cats  are  singularly  human  in  their  love  for 
their  offspring,  and  are  all  mother  in  sacrifice  and 
thoughtful  care,  giving  life  itself  if  necessary  in 
unselfish  devotion. 

The  cat  was  small,  bright-eyed  and  clean  but 
apparently  of  the  most  commonplace  and  ordinary 
variety,  and  not  distinguished  by  any  special  at- 
tractiveness as  to  species.  Still,  on  hearing  the 
"story  of  her  life"  as  related  by  this  man,  one 
of  her  most  faithful  benefactors,  of  how  she 
cheated  fate  and  battled  with  fear  and  death, 
conquering  every  natural  antipathy,  it  made  one 
feel  that  it  was  an  event  to  meet  her.  To  en- 

[3] 


THE  GKEAT  SMALL  CAT 

counter  such  a  plain  unassuming  little  creature 
who  had  given  positive  proof  of  harboring  in  her 
small  head  the  braiin  of  a  diplomat  and  of  being 
so  surprisingly  shrewd,  and  so  gloriously  fear- 
less, was  an  incident  of  such  stirring  revelation  as 
to  make  it  of  marked  consequence. 

In  telling  the  story,  the  cattleman  said  it  was 
partly  owing  to  the  accident  of  the  little  mother- 
cat's  being  black  in  color  that  she  was  here  on 
the  ranch  in  a  little  corner  that  she  felt  was  home 
and  that  meant  happiness  to  her.  There  may 
be  in  some  out-of-the-way  corners  of  the  world, 
people  who  still  believe  in  magic  and  folk-lore 
and  with  them  the  fair  fame  of  black  cats  ever 
suffers  from  that  benighted  superstition  of  ancient 
times,  that  they  are  creatures  of  witches  and 
devils.  But  the  more  modern  belief  makes  double 
reparation  for  this  uncanny  ignorance  by  giving 
them  the  reputation  of  not  only  always  bringing 
good  luck  in  their  wake,  but  lovers  as  well. 

Larry  was  squatting  upon  his  heels,  his  broad 
back  leaning  carelessly  against  the  "bunk  house, " 
while  he  gazed  reminiscently  down  over  his  pipe 
at  the  modest  bunch  of  black  fur  neatly  snuggled 
in  the  dust  at  his  side,  all  four  paws  tucked  out 
of  sight,  when,  in  Western  cameraderie,  I  coaxed 
from  him  the  story  I  had  wondered  so  much  about 
and  longed  to  hear  in  detail.  As  he  began  to 
tell  me  about  it  in  the  lazy,  good-natured,  pro- 
vincial dialect  of  the  plains,  one  hand  strayed 
caressingly  to  the  head  of  the  "little  pard"  and 
lingered  there  lovingly  while  he  talked  and 
smoked. 

[4] 


THE  GEEAT  SMALL  CAT 

"Oh,  she's  just  a  small  stray  that  loped  in  on 
our  range,  but  y'u  can  bet  ye'r  life  she's  a  winner 
all  right  and  a  bunch  hard  to  beat.  She's  'just 
cat,'  but  there  ain't  nothing  nowhere  purtier,  and 
y'u  couldn't  go  out  in  a  whole  round-up  of  felines 
and  rope  a  gentler  one,  though  she's  grit  clear 
through  to  the  backbone. ' ' 

The  "bunch  hard  to  beat"  looked  up  into  her 
friend's  face  with  bright,  inquiring  eyes,  under- 
standing the  love  and  approval  in  his  glance  if 
not  the  great  distinction  conferred  upon  her  of 
being  the  bright,  particular  star  in  the  story  he 
was  relating. 

"Well,  y'u  see,  it's  this-a-way,"  explained 
Larry,  in  his  pleasant  drawl,  removing  his  briar 
and  stiffening  his  muscles:  "Cats  is  mighty  use- 
ful things.  What  would  the  blamed  country  be 
without  them  anyway! — an'  it's  no  way  reason- 
able that  we  could  run  t his  ranch  without  this  little 
peacherino.  She's  just  a  soft  pretty  thing,  but 
she's  sure  got  spunk  enough  for  a  wild  bull. 
Lordy  me!  we're  just  plumb  foolish  over  her, 
and  she  don't  step  on  nobody's  bunions  no  more, 
y'u  bet!  She  ain't  that  sort.  She's  so  modest 
and  quiet  it  beats  all  how  good  it  makes  y'u  feel 
just  to  have  her  round;  a  sort  of  spiritual  uplift 
and  missionary  'home  sweet  home'  broke  gentle 
to  the  gang." 

Evidently  these  men,  really  manly  men,  some 
of  them  as  brown  and  wrinkled  as  an  old  leather 
shoe,  were  the  little  cat's  sincere  admirers.  As 
I  listened  to  the  story,  I  stole  her  from  the  ranch- 
man's hand  and  gathered  her,  almost  reverently, 

[5] 


THE  GREAT  SMALL  CAT 
in  my  lap,  more  then  as  a  testimony  to  the  big- 
heartedness  and  sterling  human  qualities  of  the 
Western    cattlemen,    than    as    the    distinguished 
heroine  of  the  narrative./ 

It  seems  that  at  the  noon  hour,  about  the 
middle  of  one  April,  while  the  men  were  idly 
loitering  on  the  shady  side  of  the  adobe,  waiting 
for  the  hour  to  strike  which  called  them  to  work 
again,  a  dusty,  fuzzy  little  black  streak  scooted 
in  from  the  direction  of  the  road  and  dropped 
all  in  a  heap,  breathless  and  exhausted,  at  their 
feet.  The  "deboo"  of  this  miserable  little 
stranger  had  been  unannounced  and  the  sudden- 
ness of  this  rather  dramatic  entrance  upon  the 
scene  of  the  unexpected,  though  tiny  debutante, 
caused  quite  a  flutter  among  the  men,  and  pipes 
and  cigarettes  were  hastily  laid  aside  in  order 
that  they  might  look  over  at  close  range  this 
"feeble  short  horn."  The  bedraggled  little  " black 
streak"  proved  on  examination  to  be  the  thinnest, 
most  woebegone,  footsore,  starved  and  wholly  ex- 
hausted black  kitten  ever  seen,  whose  tired  legs 
had  been  able  to  carry  her  just  this  far — not  a 
step  farther  could  she  have  gone.  She  was  in- 
deed a  pitiful  creature,  half -dead  with  fear  and 
fatigue,  and  in  looks  so  painfully  appealing  that 
she  waked  compassion  in  even  the  stoniest  heart. 
Evidently  she  had  traveled  far,  without  food  or 
rest,  as  she  was  completely  done  for.  Why  she 
came,  or  from  where,  nobody  could  tell,  but  prob- 
ably chased  and  hunted  until  absolutely  worn  out, 
she  had  in  her  extremity  ventured  into  this  refuge 
of  humans,  taking  her  chances.  To  the  ever- 

[6] 


THE  GEEAT  SMALL  CAT 
lasting  honor  of  these  rough  ranch  hands,  their 
tough  bachelor  hearts  were  touched  by  this  help- 
less, sick-looking  little  mite  of  a  kitten,  and  they 
decided  that  she  was  to  stay  and  be  made  com- 
fortable. Feeling  half-ashamed  of  their  compas- 
sionate impulse  and  in  order  to  hide  even  from 
one  another  any  unmanly  sentiment  in  the  matter, 
one  said: 

"H'its  powerful  good  luck  to  have  a  black  cat 
hit  the  camp!  I  like  the  color,  boys,  and  have  a 
hunch  it'll  bring  us  great;  let's  rope  and  brand 
her  for  our  diggins." 

So  the  "good  luck"  was  not  scatted  off,  but 
was  introduced  to  the  ranch  and  seemed  very 
grateful  for  their  soft-hearted  hospitality.  When 
she  had  lapped  some  good  warm  milk  into  her 
vacant  stomach  she  gained  sufficient  strength  to 
express  her  satisfaction  with  what  had  been 
"handed  out  to  her,"  and  showed  a  most  beauti- 
ful willingness  to  stay  by  it. 

The  "hostess"  of  this  ranch  was  a  large,  wide 
"widow  woman,"  in  eloquent  vernacular  "grass," 
one  of  those  very  capable,  hard-working  individ- 
uals whose  precarious  temper  even  when  all  went 
well  with  her,  was  never  to  be  imposed  upon.  Her 
brisk,  ponderous  tread  was  a  power,  real  and  felt, 
and  not  to  be  trifled  with  for  a  moment  in  any 
mood.  The  boys  realized  that  she  would  be 
"plumb  discouraging"  to  any  scheme  for  the 
adoption  of  this  tiny  waif,  and  knew  the  utter  futil- 
ity of  trying  to  pull  her  heartstrings  in  any  kind  of 
sympathy  for  "only  a  cat."  So  they  turned  all 
their  energies  into  the  most  guilty,  barefaced 

[7] 


THE  GEEAT  SMALL  CAT 
personal  coaxing  and  cajolery  in  order  to  get  any 
kind  of  concession  in  her  department  for  this  ad- 
ditional feeder.  As  they  expected,  she  was  about 
as  responsive  as  a  Chinese  Joss  and  as  hard  as 
a  stone  to  any  possible  allurements  the  kitten 
might  develop  as  a  home-maker,  and  the  very  most 
they  could  gain  from  the  "old  grouch "  was  a 
grudging  consent  to  just  "let  her  stay  round  till 
some  other  place  can  be  found  for  her." 

"And  her  face  wasn't  a  mite  smiling  or  even 
friendly  as  she  said  it."  So  the  poor  little  kitten, 
being  only  on  sufferance,  accepted  such  crusts  of 
charity  as  came  her  way,  and  was  mighty  grateful ; 
for  she  was  very  hungry,  very  weary,  and  good 
food  had  long  been  a  strange  thing  in  her  small 
stomach.  It  was  plain  the  kitten  had  never  known 
anything  of  home  or  a  fireside  and  was  simply 
of  the  humble  garden  variety  of  cat.  Yet  she 
was  not  an  outcast  or  a  tramp  by  nature,  for  she 
proved  very  quick  to  fall  into  ways  which  con- 
tributed to  the  cosiness  of  the  cabin  kitchen,  even 
with  the  scant  encouragement  she  received.  The 
feminine  eternal  heart-throb  of  home-making  was 
certainly  there  in  her  breast,  for  just  like  "other 
folks"  she  took  her  allotted  place  in  the  corner 
back  of  the  big  stove  and  was  singularly  human 
in  the  snug  enjoyment  of  the  comfort  of  it. 

In  the  cattle  country  the  one  momentary  lull  in 
affairs  is  when  the  day's  work  is  over  and  night 
has  settled  down  over  the  lonesome  miles  of  ranch 
and  the  men  are  all  gathered  in  a  circle  round  the 
open  fire.  In  this  good-fellowship  under  the  big 
stars  one  night,  they  fell  to  discussing  their  little 

[8] 


THE   GEEAT  SMALL  CAT 

ALTHOUGH  THE  SMALL  STRAY  WAS 
MINUS    ALL    SIGNS    or    PEDIGREE,    SHE    HELD 

HER  HEAD  HIGH 

AND  WAS   ACCORDED   THE   RESPECT  AND 
GOOD   TREATMENT   DUE   A   LADY 


THE  GREAT  SMALL  .CAT 
black  protegee,  and  the  permission  they  had  to 
only  "let  her  stay  round. "  As  they  were  almost 
maternally  solicitous  that  she  should  have  a  per- 
manent home  with  them,  they  decided  that  as  her 
sponsors  they  were  in  a  way  responsible  and  had 
better  get  busy  at  once  and  attend  to  her  serious 
education,  laying  out  the  details  of  her  conduct 
on  a  straight  and  narrow  path  of  duty. 

Larry  was  the  one  selected  to  "break  her 
gentle,"  and  at  his  very  first  opportunity  was 
requested  to  "do  the  decent"  and  to  start  her 
off  with  a  strictly  private  and  business  tip,  speak- 
ing for  the  whole  outfit.  In  recalling  this  incident 
in  the  game,  Larry's  big  laugh  rang  out  until  he 
wiped  the  tears  away  with  a  corner  of  the  gay 
bandanna  knotted  about  his  neck. 

"I  took  this  tenderfoot  aside,"  he  said,  "and 
gave  it  to  her  personally  and  straight,  y'u  bet. 
Come  here,  pard,  says  I,  I've  got  to  give  it  to 
y'u  private  and  special.  We  want  y'u  to  camp 
in  this  yere  diggins  for  always,  but,  if  y'u  get 
a  chance  to  stay,  y'u've  got  to  conduct  yereself 
decorus.  This  yere  is  a  bachelor  round-up  with 
one  skirt  that's  the  big  boss  of  the  whole  outfit. 
What  she  says  goes  and  y'u  want  to  get  that  into 
yere  system  from  the  start-off.  We  want  to  give 
y'u  a  square  deal  with  no  superfluous  language, 
but  She's  the  cinch  and  y'll  get  what's  coming  to 
y'u,  all  right,  if  y'u  don't  go  cautious." 

The  recounter  said  that  the  very  grave  and 
polite  way  the  kitten  took  this  "rounding-up 
spiritually"  was  killing,  solemnly  looking  him 
straight  in  the  eye  with  painful  concentration, 

[9] 


THE  GEEAT  SMALL  CAT 
her  little  nose  in  nervous  crinkles.  Larry  con- 
fessed that  the  big  effort  this  small  vagrant  made 
"to  get  the  drift "  of  what  he  was  trying  to  im- 
press on  her  mind,  made  him  feel  like  a  huge 
brute.  Anyway,  by  some  trick  of  his  slow,  de- 
licious drawl,  the  timely  warning  "sunk  in"  and 
found  a  responsive  chord  in  her  consciousness. 
In  some  way  she  fathomed  his  friendly  intention 
and  understood,  at  least,  the  magic  timbre  of  his 
soothing  voice  which  flashed  back  entire  confi- 
dence and  drew  to  him  a  friend,  one  who  was 
infinitely  shy,  but  one  who  would  trust  him  ab- 
solutely while  life  lasted. 

These  paternal  young  cowmen,  having  deliv- 
ered their  souls  of  this  religious  act  of  discipline, 
"pulled  the  stake"  and  let  her  go  free.  By  the 
time  the  days  of  kittenhood  had  passed  the 
"stray"  had  grown  plump  and  her  coat  glossy, 
and  although  minus  all  signs  of  pedigree,  she 
held  her  head  high  and  had  acquired  a  certain 
modest  dignity,  sufficient  to  deceive  a  laynjan  and 
to  insure  the  respect  and  good  treatment  due  a 
lady.  Evidently  she  had  been  careful  to  mind  the 
warning  and  was  conducting  herself  "decorus." 
In  return  for  their  hospitality  she  attended  to 
her  part  of  the  ranch  business  by  keeping  the 
cabin  and  pantry  strictly  clear  of  all  rats  and 
mice.  Occasionally  she  gave  chase  to  the  wild 
things  good  for  cats,  and  at  milking  time,  if  she 
happened  to  "hang  round,"  the  men  were  sure 
to  give  her  a  fine  dessert  of  warm  milk.  As  the 
days  and  weeks  went  happily  by  for  her,  she 
unobtrusively  arranged  her  life  to  suit  the  pleas- 

[10] 


THE  GREAT  SMALL  CAT 
ant  place  she  had  fallen  into,  gaining  an  honest 
living  by  her  skill,  with  a  few  luxuries  thrown  in 
at  unexpected  intervals  by  the  men,  who  would 
forget  her  for  days  at  a  time,  owing  to  her  modest 
way  of  keeping  in  the  background.  If  on  some 
lean  and  hungry  days,  when  hunting  had  not  been 
so  successful,  she  would  sometimes  wistfully  sniff, 
with  eager,  yearning  stomach  and  longing,  though 
decently  distant  eyes,  the  bountiful,  savory  mess 
of  the  kitchen,  or  venture  to  rub  too  coaxingly 
near  the  bustling  form  juggling  the  pots  and  pans 
with  energetic  vehemence,  she  was  soon  made  to 
understand  that  she  had  overstepped  the  bounds 
of  her  tolerance,  in  trespassing  on  the  particular 
domain  of  one  who  just  endured  her  unwelcome 
presence.  Being  feminine  and  an  unusually  sen- 
sible and  peaceable  cat,  she  soon  developed  a 
surprising  acuteness  in  diplomacy  and  in  warding 
off  unnecessary  trouble.  After  various  mortifying 
experiences  she  found  it  best  to  be  "only  handy " 
at  such  times  as  the  feasts  were  in  progress, 
creeping  most  cautiously  in,  a-tiptoe  on  her  soft 
noiseless  pads,  just  to  be  there  in  case  any  tid- 
bits should  come  her  way. 

All  might  have  been  well,  and  life  a  long  holi- 
day, leading  her  in  pleasant  ways  to  the  end,  had 
she  not  erred,  and  so  innocently  and  blindly  erred. 
Of  course  it  was  scandalous,  if  natural,  and  not 
to  be  tolerated  for  one  moment  by  the  already 
much  overburdened  landlady.  The  downfall  came 
as  a  terribly  stiff  jolt  to  poor  kitty,  for  her  heart 
had  swelled  with  guiltless  pride  over  her  sin  and 
its  achievement. 

[11] 


THE  GREAT  SMALL  CAT 

One  sad  Sunday  morning  she  was  discovered 
in  her  cosy  corner,  a  very  picture  of  innocent 
content  over  the  beautiful  surprise  she  had  cre- 
ated for  the  family.  There  she  lay  with  her  eyes 
half -closed,  softly  beaming  in  rapture  on  six  very 
small,  newly  born  infants  at  her  breasts.  As  she 
was  "  discovered "  she  looked  up  in  her  delirium 
of  happiness  with  a  hesitating,  half -apologetic 
sort  of  smile,  as  one  longing  for,  yet  meeting,  no 
response.  Her  anxiety  was  so  exactly  human  that 
no  one  could  mistake  her  meaning  or  her  little 
weak  smile  of  hesitating  conciliation.  But  it  froze 
in  a  flash  when  with  frightened  dismay  she  heard 
the  hustling  housewife's  loud  and  angry  denuncia- 
tion of  "the  march  that  hussy  had  stolen  on  us," 
and  the  sentence  of  "immediate  death"  or  "trans- 
portation" pronounced  on  "her  and  her  brood," 
in  stentorian  and  not-to-be-trifled- with  tones. 

These  square  men  with  square  jaws  were  "all 
in  a  heap"  over  the  size  and  caliber  of  the  shock 
their  pet  had  handed  out  to  them.  The  smolder- 
ing spark  of  guardianship  that  had  been  fanned 
to  a  warm,  comfortable  flame  in  their  breasts  was 
not  so  easily  extinguished,  but  they  realized  that 
all  pleading  and  diplomacy  with  the  outraged  Au- 
thority would  be  in  vain  this  time.  No  pet  on  the 
ranch  had  ever,  in  an  unobtrusive  way,  gained  so 
firm  a  hold  on  their  stout  hearts  and  i '  their  pile  of 
hope  was  busted  well"  by  this  rude  interruption  to 
the  tremendous  bid  they  had  made  on  the  bad-tem- 
pered woman's  favor.  Not  only  did  they  hate 
to  part  with  this  shy,  little,  inoffensive  protegee, 
but  that  she  had  failed  to  "make  good"  in  the 

[12] 


THE  GEEAT  SMALL  CAT 
eyes  of  the  one  whom,  in  their  fiercest  rage  they 
dared  not  oppose,  and  so  had  lost  her  home,  was 
a  sickening  disappointment.  As  they  braced 
themselves  for  the  worst  and  stood  there  smiling 
indulgently  down  on  the  cat  so  snug  in  her  bed, 
there  was  a  long  and  rather  anxious  pause  during 
which  they  all  seemed  tongue-tied,  until  at  last 
one  said  in  playful  disgust: 

" Humph!  y'uVe  been  plumb  busy  to-day, 
hav'n't  y'u,  old  girl,  and  this  time,  like  all  females, 
handing  out  trouble  for  yereself  with  both  hands. ' ' 
They  were  both  disgusted  and  "plenty  sor- 
rowful" over  the  terrible  fiat,  but  it  was  a  case, 
on  their  part,  of  "have  to,"  and  a  bad  case,  too. 
Not  that  they  were  afraid,  but  they  were  "hob- 
bled," all  right,  as  well  as  "bridle  wise,"  and 
frankly  confessed  that  when  it  came  to  women, 
they  were  "a  mite  timid."  But  since  there  was 
a  choice  of  evils,  in  sorrowfully  bending  to  the 
inevitable  they,  of  course,  decided  on  "transpor- 
tation." In  indignation  they  considered  places, 
finally  determining  to  take  the  offending  family 
across  the  river,  far,  far,  away  where  they  would 
never  more  be  able  to  trespass  on  so  reluctant  a 
hospitality  as  the  ranch  cabin  afforded.  In  wide- 
eyed  wonderment  and  feverish  anxiety,  the  crest- 
fallen young  mother  followed  every  movement  in 
the  preparations  that  were  being  made  for  her 
journey.  She,  of  course,  could  not  understand, 
but  watched  with  vastly  puzzled  eyes  all  this 
strange  confusion  about  her  bed,  feeling  that  she 
was  surely  in  some  way  responsible  for  this  un- 
usual excitement.  In  nervous  haste  she  passion- 

[13] 


THE  GREAT  SMALL  CAT 

ately  licked  the  wee  babies  with  tender,  mothering 
tongue,  and  with  soft  caressing  murmurs  as  if  as- 
suring them  of  safety  and  was  about  to  do  it  all 
over  again  with  utmost  care  in  hopes  of  being  able 
to  disperse  the  gloom  they  had  evidently  created 
when  she  and  the  kits  were  lifted  gently  into  a 
covered  basket  which  the  men  had  been  carefully 
preparing  for  the  conveyance.  They  knew  of  a 
place,  "the  furtherest  ever,"  a  real  home  ranch 
where  the  house-mother  would  be  really  glad  of 
this  family.  It  was  far  enough  away  so  that  the 
exile  could  never  return,  and  besides,  what  made  it 
an  absolutely  safe  asylum  in  the  judgment  of  these 
men  was  that  it  was  across  a  deep  flowing  river, 
which  meant  that  there  could  be  no  "  stampede " 
back.  Even  for  the  most  homesick  of  kitties  and 
one  who  "sure  had  spunk/'  it  would  be  madness 
to  attempt  to  return  across  that. 

These  big  men,  big  physically  and  big  in  ten- 
derness and  sympathy,  usually  "took  the  bit  in 
their  mouths  and  got  whatever  they  went  for," 
and  with  pretty  smart  directness,  too.  But  they 
were  shy,  their  nerve  forsaking  them  entirely, 
when  it  came  to  tackling  a  woman  on  her  own 
stamping  ground,  and  that  woman  the  very  cap- 
able provider  of  their  "three  square  per."  Why 
she  had  taken  this  obstinate  caprice  and  unrea- 
sonable dislike  they  did  not  try  to  conjecture.  It 
was  beyond  male  understanding  and  they  lov- 
ingly alluded  to  her  as  the  "one  and  original 
Chinese  puzzle."  They  said  "women  is  queer" 
with  that  long-suffering  tolerance  which  the  male 
human  accords  the  vagaries  of  the  female. 

[14] 


THE  GEEAT  SMALL  CAT 

The  rangeman  is  nothing  if  he  lacks  that  one 
remarkably  comfortable  trait  of  adaptability,  and 
so,  although  they  were  not  " stuck  on  the  job" 
of  removing  the  cat,  they  were  forced  by  virtue 
of  their  very  large  necessity  not  to  get  into  a 
"mix-up,"  by  reason  of  the  woman 's  crabbed 
temper  and  strange  antagonism. 

So  two  volunteer  martyrs,  boiling,  seething 
volcanoes  inside,  shamedly  and  reluctantly  took 
up  the  basket,  holding  it  as  gingerly  as  if  it  were 
a  case  of  eggs  instead  of  a  case  of  a  mother  and 
her  harvest  of  shame,  and  dismally  started  for 
the  ferry.  After  crossing  the  river  they  "pulled 
their  freight"  on  the  trail  a  mile  farther  back 
inland,  which  led  upwards  into  a  wide  broad 
meadow  and  to  the  home  of  a  friendly  ranch-boss. 
The  buxom  wife  welcomed  their  unexpected  ar- 
rival and  the  "family"  with  open  arms,  telling 
them  that  she  had  long  been  wanting  a  younger 
breed  of  cats  to  take  the  place  of  "old  Tom," 
now  getting  lazy  and  "no  'count,"  and  that  she 
felt  flattered  that  these  faithful  friends  had  se- 
lected this  ranch  as  the  home  for  their  pet.  The 
men  fixed  a  nice  warm  bed  in  the  sanctuary  of  a 
vacant  manger  in  one  of  the  corrals,  counted  out 
the  infants  and  found  them  all  0.  K.,  and  then 
tried  to  coax  the  cat  to  nestle  down  and  mother 
them.  But  she  would  not,  merely  crouching  over 
them  instead,  in  an  anxious  sort  of  way  with  her 
ears  perked  inquiringly  forward,  in  an  attitude 
of  miserable  bewilderment. 

The  outcome  of  her  "happy  surprise"  had 
been  a  crushing  blow,  but  one  which  would  wake 

[15] 


THE  GREAT  SMALL  CAT 
within  her  such  a  marvelous  spirit  of  determina- 
tion and  endurance  as  to  render  her  distinguished 
among  cats.  The  second  "happy  surprise"  she 
was  to  unfold  for  their  entertainment  was  one 
little  anticipated  and  one  that  would  take  the 
breath  from  even  these  hardened  men. 

As  they  turned  finally  to  leave  her  she  gave  a 
long  agonized  mew  that  was  so  like  a  human  call 
of  utter  desolation,  and  which  caused  such  queer 
fluttering  thumps  in  the  men's  hearts,  that  they 
went  back  to  console  her,  if  possible,  and  to  tuck 
the  babies  all  in  again,  with  the  caution  to  lie 
still  and  be  good. 

"Now  look  here,  Cat,  y'u  don't  want  to  take 
it  to  heart  like  this!  Y'u've  been  treated  low 
down  and  it's  a  darned  shame,  but  there's  no  use 
getting  all  fussed  up  over  it.  Y'u  can  bank  on 
yere  pards  making  things  pretty  mean  and  sassy 
for  that  'old  porkypine.'  She's  sure  in  fer  sor- 
row !  The  rats  and  mice  will  do  things,  something 
scandalous,  in  that  old  pantry  of  hern.  Now,  go 
by-low,  and  take  good  care  of  the  babies  till  we 
come  again." 

Waving  her  a  sorrowful  "ta-ta"  with  their 
hands,  they  at  last  left  her,  to  return  by  way  of 
the  ferry,  singing  as  they  went,  in  their  mellow 
cowboy  cadence,  an  old  Scotch  folk-lore  song  which 
they  thought  quite  appropriate  to  the  occasion 
and  soothing  to  the  mother: 

There  was  an  old  cat,  and  a  black  cat,  too, 
That  had  so  many  children,  she  didn't  know  what  to  do. 
To  save  them  from  fighting  and  scratching  and  bawling, 
She  pinned  them  all  up  by  the  ears  when  out  calling. 

[16] 


'HE  GREAT  SMALL  CAT 

Little  they  suspected  that  the  echo  of  the 
thrilling  tenderness  in  their  voices  as  they  chanted 
this  low  refrain,  growing  fainter  and  fainter  as 
they  disappeared  down  the  hill,  was  stirring  an 
impulse  in  her  thumping  heart,  which  when  ma- 
ture, would  work  out  into  so  wise  and  cunning  a 
scheme  as  to  render  their  deliberate,  well-planned 
human  precautions  as  naught. 

Down  deep  beneath  the  apparently  indifferent 
nature  of  every  animal  quivers  an  intense  human 
love  of  home  that  glows  with  a  steady  flame  as 
long  as  life  lasts.  It  is  God's  own  gift  to  the 
animals  and  in  the  heart  of  this  little  exile  it  was 
a  passion  that  had  grown  into  an  intense  deter- 
mination for  that  one  bit  of  earth  from  which 
she  had  been  torn,  and  the  only  place  in  all  the 
world  that  seemed  good  to  her.  This  divine  long- 
ing for  her  old  quarters  was  a  vibrant  thrill, 
thumping,  thumping  continually,  like  a  trip-ham- 
mer in  her  homesick  breast,  and  already  daring 
the  best  and  bravest  in  her  nature  to  dangers  ap- 
palling to  a  much  bigger  and  bolder  beastie. 
There  was  no  outcry  and  no  appeal  for  help  in 
the  desolate  hours  she  must  have  spent  in  meditat- 
ing on  the  venturesome  risk  of  this  dumb  chal- 
lenge, but  deep  down  in  that  undiscovered  coun- 
try of  the  cat's  outraged  loyalty,  there  must  have 
been  something  powerfully  impelling  to  have  given 
her  the  daring  to  undertake  so  desperate  and  ven- 
turesome a  deed. 

In  the  velvet  dusk  of  a  night,  not  long  after- 
ward, a  solitary  figure,  lean,  black,  and  small, 
might  have  been  seen,  trotting  at  a  steady 

[17]  " 


THE  GEEAT  SMALL  CAT 

pace  with  a  purposeful  air  that  surely  meant 
business,  carefully  picking  her  way  among  the 
weeds  and  undergrowth  and  making  straight 
for  the  cottonwoods  and  willows  that  grew  along 
the  bank  of  the  river.  The  determined  form  was 
steady  of  nerve,  carrying  her  head  high,  and  in 
her  mouth  a  limp,  nerveless  black  bundle  of  fur. 
When  she  reached  the  brink  of  the  swift-flowing, 
trackless  water,  there  was  a  quivering  pause,  as 
if  she  were  perhaps  weighing  the  chances  of  life 
and  death;  but  only  for  an  instant,  for  immedi- 
ately there  was  a  plunk  and  she  sank  right  down 
into  the  whirl  of  the  dreadful  blackness  and  then 
— silence. 

Holding  her  burden  high  in  her  mouth,  safe 
and  dry,  she  soon  dragged  her  wet  and  heavy  body 
up  the  bank  on  the  opposite  shore,  and  obeying 
the  sure  instinct  of  her  useful  little  nose  set  her 
face  right  for  the  old  place  in  the  kitchen  cabin 
which  was  the  cherished  spot  of  her  determined 
desire.  She  placed  this  smallest  and  least  pretty 
of  her  brood  in  the  old  nest  that  had  been  so 
rudely  despoiled,  but  without  waiting  to  comfort 
or  even  to  warm  the  wee  mite,  turned  her  face 
resolutely  toward  the  return  journey.  There  was 
no  time  to  stop,  as  ten  times  more  she  must  fight 
the  good  fight  and  battle  with  the  cold  and  danger 
of  the  awful  and  tedious  transit. 

The  gray  dawn  was  just  breaking  by  the  time 
the  intrepid  little  mother,  utterly  exhausted,  lay 
beside  her  six  babies  in  her  old  homey  bed,  a  mute 
reproach  to  the  caprice  or  hasty  anger  that  had 
made  this  cruel  test  necessary.  The  six  sources 

[18] 


THE  GEEAT  SMALL  CAT 
of  all  her  trouble  were  tugging  hungrily  at  her 
breasts,    looking   as   innocent    and   harmless    as 
downy   puffs,    having   already   been   licked    and 
groomed  into  tidiness  by  their  forgiving  mother. 

The  housekeeper's  gasp  of  astonishment 
changed  into  a  cry  of  disbelief  when  she  came  into 
the  cabin  and  found  the  family  so  snugly  settled 
in  their  old  quarters.  Surely  "the  boys"  had  de- 
ceived her  in  regard  to  having  taken  the  cat  across 
the  river,  or  how  could  this  marvel  be!  The 
round,  fixed  and  troubled  eyes  of  the  cat  looked 
questioningly  and  bravely  up  into  her  enemy's 
startled  face  while  her  fate  hung  in  the  balance, 
with  a  courage  that  feared  but  did  not  flinch, 
and  there  could  be  no  mistaking  their  half-defiant 
plea  this  time.  It  would,  indeed,  have  been  a 
heart  of  steel  not  to  have  been  moved  by  the 
pity  of  it,  as  the  frail  bit  of  motherhood  looked 
from  the  coldly  inquiring  eyes  bending  above  her, 
to  the  collection  at  her  breasts,  with  a  tenderness 
and  pride  that  would  have  shamed  a  human 
mother.  Evidently  the  milk  of  human  kindness 
had  not  all  dried  up  in  the  rough  woman's 
motherly  breast  in  rubbing  all  these  years  against 
the  sharp  edges  of  Western  ranch  life  and  she 
was  at  last  touched  in  a  vulnerable  spot,  for  the 
flush  of  anger  faded  from  her  irate  face,  and  the 
hand  so  threateningly  raised  fell  in  a  half -gentle 
pat  on  the  small  mother  so  bravely  awaiting  her 
decision. 

Afterward  when  the  full  significance  of  what 
she  had  seen  there  had  filtered  to  her  understand- 
ing and  she  knew  the  story  of  the  cat's  valiant 

[19] 


THE  GEEAT  SMALL  CAT 
struggle  with  death  and  the  marvelous  feat  of 
her  perilous  journey  just  to  "be  home"  and  with 
those  she  had  "loved  and  lost  a  while, "  herself 
among  the  rest,  her  face  softened  and  the  first 
real  smile  she  had  shown  for  years  beamed  on 
her  face,  chasing  the  old  hardened  lines  to  the 
jumping- off  point.  Even  the  hearts  of  these  big 
bluff  cowmen  quailed  in  contemplating  the  Spar- 
tan nerve  this  helpless  young  mother  had  shown 
in  making  that  piteous  journey,  back  and  forth 
in  the  lonely  silence  of  the  black  night,  mindful 
of  each  and  every  one  of  those  precious  babies. 
This  was  just  a  plain,  common  everyday  cat,  but 
one  with  an  extraordinary  calm  determination 
and  a  stout  heart  overflowing  with  two  sacred 
and  human  attributes,  mother-love  and  home-love. 
She  had  paid  the  price,  fearlessly  and  pluckily, 
to  ease  these  human  aches  in  her  breast,  a  price 
the  agony  of  which  perhaps  we  have  no  way  of 
measuring,  but  one  from  which  we  know  she  would 
have  shrunk  in  horror  under  ordinary  circum- 
stances. 

This  small  animal  of  no  pretensions  whatever, 
maneuvered  and  fought  her  successful  battle 
alone,  daring  even  to  challenge  a  bitter  enemy,  and 
gained  not  only  the  home  that  she  had  insisted 
upon  keeping,  but  in  the  end,  by  a  strange  caprice 
of  fortune,  the  far  greater  and  unexpected  compen- 
sation of  finding  a  warm  soft  spot  in  a  heart  sup- 
posed to  be  invulnerable. 

It  was  not  necessary,  when  the  men  came  in 
to  breakfast,  for  each  to  deny  any  conspiracy  in 
the  cat's  home-coming.  Wet,  weary  and  cold, 

[20] 


THE  GREAT  SMALL  CAT 
the  cat  told  her  own  story.  That  their  astonish- 
ment was  genuine,  no  one  could  doubt,  for  they 
were  struck  dumb  as  they  stared  blankly  at  the 
"  monster, "  though  their  beaming  faces  could  not 
hide  the  cheery  welcome  they  gave  her  in  spite  of 
being  unable  to  utter  it.  They  were  evidently 
1  i plumb  locoed "  for  even  the  boldest  and  most 
reckless  of  them,  knowing  what  the  mother  must 
have  been  through,  could  not  look  unmoved  on 
this  miracle  of  miracles — not  one  kitling  missing 
of  the  many,  and  each  one  meaning  a  trip  across 
the  dark,  swirling  current.  Emitting  sonorous 
and  somewhat  profane  ejaculations,  but  decidedly 
to  the  point,  they  "sort 'a"  laughed  and  shrugged 
their  shoulders,  evidently  unable  to  find  any  lan- 
guage polite  enough  to  express  their  sentiments 
on  the  subject  and  perhaps  it  dimly  occurred  to 
them  that  it  might  be  better  not  to  express  them 
anyway.  But  these  rough  diamonds  were  always 
sure  to  come  out  strongest  under  hardest  con- 
ditions, so  one  of  them,  in  quick  kindliness,  to 
relieve  the  rather  awkward  strain  of  the  situation, 
"made  good"  by  exclaiming  with  shame-faced 
tenderness:  "The  trouble  with  cats  is,  y'u  can't 
never  tell  what  they  know  and  what  they  don't, 
nor  what  darned  foolish  audasus  ideas  they  got 
tucked  away  in  their  measly  carcasses." 

There  was  no  use  arguing  with  the  warlike 
"missus,"  although  they  surely  felt  there  was 
argument  "a  plenty"  otf  their  side  and  chafed 
at  the  mandates  of  their  more  polite  diplomacy, 
but  swallowed  their  wrath  in  silent  indignation, 
as  being  the  better  part  of  valor,  too  happy  in 

[21] 


THE  GREAT  SMALL  CAT 
the  strange  turn  of  affairs  to  parley  over  it.  As 
Larry  said,  " There  ain't  no  depending  on  fe- 
males," and  surprises  await  you  at  every  turn. 
However,  a  woman  is  never  so  humble  as  when 
proven  biased  in  judgment  or  instinct,  and  what- 
ever their  former  differences  may  have  been,  the 
hour  of  surrender  on  this  woman's  part  showed 
that  deep  down  inside  she  was  made  of  the  proper 
stuff,  and  that  it  was  not  hardness  of  heart  but 
the  hardness  of  her  life  that  had  given  her  this 
rough  exterior.  This  strange  tenderness  that  pity 
had  been  able  to  awaken  in  the  woman's  heart 
had  been  dormant  all  these  lonely  years  and  was 
probably  not  intended  for  a  cat  at  all,  but  for 
something  dearer  and  sweeter;  still,  in  lieu  of 
its  natural  vent,  it  was  decreed  it  should  be  lav- 
ished on  this  nice  little  comfortable  substitute. 
Thus  one  tiny  flash  of  love-light  transformed  com- 
pletely her  disagreeable  bearing  and  declared  for 
an  everlasting  friendship  between  the  large  wo- 
man of  the  large  ranch  and  the  small  cat.  Ap- 
parently there  was  some  secret  understanding 
between  them,  for  it  was  a  turning  point  and  the 
beginning  of  a  new  era  in  the  life  of  each.  Here- 
after the  earth  and  the  fulness  thereof  seemed  to 
be  the  cat's.  However  the  victory  she  had  won 
sat  very  modestly  on  the  unpresuming  diplomat 
who  humbly  took  up  her  duties  just  where  she 
had  left  them  off,  and  in  spare  moments  tried  to 
show  her  gladness  in  being  safe  at  home  and  in 
good  fellowship,  by  opening  and  shutting  her 
small  claws  ecstatically  and  purring  like  a  small 
drum. 

[22] 


THE  GREAT  SMALL  CAT 
There  was  no  public  display  on  the  woman's 
part  of  this  wonderful  burst  of  tenderness  in  her 
heart,  for  she  would  have  been  ashamed  to  show 
how  good  it  felt  to  be  human,  but  the  lesson  had 
"took"  and  evidently  "took  hard,"  for  it  bore 
fruit  in  a  wonderful  moderation  in  her  tyrannous 
rule  and  even  a  redemption  of  her  looks.  The 
old  woebegone  lines  in  her  face,  which  her  own 
hardness  had  traced  there,  fast  disappeared,  and 
she  was  transformed  into  a  living  woman,  one 
who  felt  good  and  warm  inside  and  showed  it 
in  her  attitude  toward  all.  After  all,  love  is  the 
only  miracle,  and  hearts  are  the  same  the  world 
over,  and  perhaps  it  was  God's  timely  economy 
that  only  a  poor  little  waif  of  a  homesick  cat 
should  have  lived  and  suffered  just  to  be  the 
angel  to  make  the  whole  world  new  for  this  bitter 
woman-heart.  In  graciously  showing  this  en- 
tirely unexpected  softness,  and  a  new-born  pro- 
tecting interest  in  the  cat,  the  woman  brought  to 
herself  the  love  of  many,  and  basking  in  its  radi- 
ance was  like  being  raised  from  the  dead,  opening 
up  as  it  did  a  better  understanding  with  all  in  a 
sort  of  friendly  comradeship.  Her  manner  to- 
ward the  "little  black  mascot,"  as  the  cat  was 
now  called,  was  at  all  times  sociable  and  intimate, 
although  to  have  let  her  or  the  family  forget  for 
one  moment  that  discipline  was  her  prerogative, 
would  have  been  to  betray  the  pose  of  her  service 
of  years  among  them. 

On  the  morning  of  the  cat 's  return  she  merely 
squared  matters  with  her  own  conscience  by  tak- 
ing her  medicine  in  so  far  as  to  confess  her  miser- 

[23] 


THE  GEEAT  SMALL  CAT 
able  blunder  by  throwing  out  her  hands  in  a  sort 
of  helpless  gesture  and  bravely  assuming  the  role 
of  Destiny  by  issuing  a  final  mandate:  " She's 
had  enough,  and  she's  going  to  stay  right  here." 
Then  she  shut  her  lips  ominously  tight  together 
as  if  ignoring  the  possibility  of  any  further  dis- 
cussion on  the  subject,  which  hint  was  gladly 
heeded  by  these  alert  young  men  who  were  surely 
"onto  their  job."  Larry  said,  there  was  even 
no  "back  talk"  and  no  "crowing,  merely  a  little 
snicker, ' '  but  even  that  not  too  noticeable,  as  they 
gazed  at  each  other  in  helpless,  bashful  awkward- 
ness, waiting  for  someone  to  be  bold  and  brave 
enough  to  "get  busy"  so  that  they  could  all  "get 
out  o'  sight."  At  last,  one  care-free,  happy  young 
lad,  with  a  little  meaning  twinkle  in  his  blue  eyes, 
absolutely  unable  to  restrain  his  hilarious  ap- 
proval any  longer,  impulsively  laid  his  hand  on 
the  widow's  very  generously  upholstered  shoulder 
in  passing,  and  said  confidentially  in  a  hoarse 
whisper : 

"Thems  the  kind  of  sentiments,  and  y'u're  sure 
some  lady!  And  she's  a  great  small  cat  and  will 
sing  y'u  to  sleep  o'  nights." 

A  joyful  grin  spread  over  the  whole  bunch 
as  they  rather  sheepishly  made  their  way  to  the 
door  and  bolted  outside,  heaving  great  sighs  of 
relief  as  they  struck  the  freedom  of  the  outer  air. 
"And  the  best  of  it  all,"  explained  Larry,  smil- 
ing broadly;  "h'it's  all  true,  cross  my  heart  if  it 
tain't,  and  the  lady  took  her  medicine  good  and 
proper  and  landed  kerchunk  on  her  feet  all  right. ' ' 

And  throwing  me  a  brief  half -nod  of  youthful 
friendliness  he  was  off. 

[24] 


THURSDAY 


THURSDAY 

AGIKL,  a  hammock,  a  book  and  a  day  in  June : 
a  happy  combination  for  memories,  idleness 
and  half-sadness,  with  no  end  of  interesting  pos- 
sibilities that  might  come  to  one  who  loves  and 
responds  to  the  allurement. 

It  was  one  of  those  hot  early  June  days  in  a 
California  valley  when  all  nature  seems  held  in 
quiet  suspense.  The  wonderful  and  unusual  still- 
ness brooding  over  this  little  sunny  spot  in  the 
world,  at  last  arrested  the  girl's  attention  as  she 
lazily  swung  in  the  hammock  under  a  group  of 
giant  oaks,  and  she  let  her  book  fall  to  the  ground 
in  unconscious  neglect.  Suddenly  her  ear  caught 
a  feeble  wail  borne  on  the  quiet  air,  a  sound  that 
held  her  breathless,  with  a  little  sobbing  catch  in 
her  throat.  It  was  too  indistinct  to  have  attracted 
attention  save  for  nature's  sympathetic  hush,  and 
scarcely  seemed  separated  from  the  throbbing 
silence  all  about  her;  yet,  responsive  and  expect- 
ant she  held  her  breath  to  listen  to  the  secret  it 
might  unfold.  The  faint  cry  was  insistent  and 
at  last  revealed  itself  to  her  unmistakably  as  the 

[27] 


THUESDAY 

tiny  mew  of  a  tiny  kitten.  When  convinced  of 
this  she  was  roused  to  alertness  in  an  instant 
for  she  had  a  special  predilection  for  baby  cats, 
the  smaller  the  better.  The  pathetic  little  cry  for 
help  seemed  to  grow  weaker  and  fainter  as  she 
blindly  followed  the  sound,  which  finally  led  her 
to  the  loft  of  the  stable.  Even  then,  although  she 
realized  that  she  was  "warm  on  the  scent, "  she 
could  not  locate  the  exact  spot  this  weak  little 
mew  came  from.  But  presently  she  felt  sure  that 
it  must  come  from  the  depths  of  a  huge  packing 
case,  half-filled  with  books,  which  was  stored  in 
a  far  corner.  The  box  being  almost  her  own 
height,  she  could  by  no  possibility  lean  over  suf- 
ficiently for  her  eyes  to  pierce  its  dusky  depths. 
Hastily  getting  a  bench  for  a  perch  and  a  lighted 
candle  to  set  at  a  knot  hole  half-way  down  the 
side  of  the  box,  she  discovered  its  dark  secret 
to  be  a  small  bit  of  coal  black  glossy  fur,  with- 
out much  form  or  shape,  lying  flat  as  a  pancake 
on  one  of  the  cold  hard  books;  the  tiniest  mite 
of  a  live  cat  she  had  ever  seen. 

As  she  lifted  the  little  limp,  cold  bunch  to 
her  warm  hand,  it  ceased  to  mew  and,  she  thought, 
to  breathe,  but  she  carried  it  to  the  house  and 
found  it  alive  and  able  to  take  a  little  warm  milk 
from  a  spoon.  With  repeated  doses  of  this  nour- 
ishment at  regular  intervals  the  baby  began  to 
revive  and  at  bedtime  was  quite  a  normal  kitten, 
except  that  its  frame  was  so  unusually  small  and 
meager. 

Thinking  that  the  mother-cat  would  surely  re- 
turn at  night  to  the  place  where  she  had  left  her 

[28] 


THURSDAY 

one  wee  infant,  the  girl  returned  this  "special 
edition "  to  the  books  in  the  packing  case,  making 
it  as  warm  and  comfy  as  possible.  In  the  morn- 
ing her  first  waking  thoughts  flew  to  her  tiny 
protegee  and  on  going  to  the  box  she  found  the 
poor  little  thing  just  as  she  had  left  it  the  night 
before — no  mother,  and  evidently  abandoned. 
This  time,  on  carrying  it  to  the  house  she  made 
it  a  permanent  abiding  place  and  continued  to 
feed  it  with  a  spoon,  as  it  seemed  to  grasp  with 
readiness  the  idea  of  getting  its  food  in  this 
fashion  and  after  a  few  lessons,  took  very  kindly 
to  it. 

The  mystery  of  how  this  little  orphan  came  to 
be  in  the  case  of  books,  alone  and  deserted,  was 
never  satisfactorily  solved,  although  on  inquiry 
the  girl  was  told  that  a  neighbor  had  found  a 
black  mother-cat  dead  in  her  laundry  about  the 
time  of  the  discovery  of  the  little  kitten.  It  was 
thought  that  this  must  have  been  the  mother  of 
the  little  waif  and  that  she  had  doubtless  met 
with  an  untimely  death. 

At  any  rate,  no  mother  ever  appeared  to  claim 
the  baby,  so  she  was  adopted  and  given  the  name 
of  Thursday,  that  being  the  day  of  her  advent. 
She  was  so  wee  that  until  she  was  able  to  help 
herself  to  a  grown-up  cat's  food,  she  was  always 
fed  from  a  spoon,  and  soon  grew  to  look  upon 
this  useful  article  as  the  source  of  all  motherly 
comfort,  and  to  take  milk  from  it  as  the  chief 
object  in  living.  In  all  her  after  life,  the  sight 
of  a  spoon  seemed  to  give  her  a  thrill  and  it  was 
always  very  funny  to  watch  her  keenness  in  dis- 

[29] 


THUKSDAY 

covering  anyone  at  the  table  using  this,  her  foster- 
mother,  which  she,  very  naturally,  regarded  as 
her  own  special  property.  This  ridiculously  small 
defender  of  her  propriety  rights  would  make  her 
resentment  of  this  trespass  on  her  claim  manifest 
in  various  cunning  ways.  Often  she  would  watch 
with  impatient,  glaring  eyes,  from  her  vantage 
ground,  the  floor,  each  and  every  spoonful,  as 
it  passed  from  plate  to  mouth,  hoping  in  time  to 
stare  this  particular  offender  out  of  countenance. 
But  if  her  jealous,  concentrated  round  eyes  failed 
to  attract  the  desired  attention,  when  longer  for- 
bearance became  impossible,  she  would  jump  to 
the  lap  of  the  transgressor,  thrusting  her  little 
pink  nose  into  the  hand  that  had  so  basely  ignored 
her  indignation,  and  intercept  the  spoon  with  a 
dainty  paw  and  a  comical  air  of  haughty  rebuke, 
as  if  saying:  "Little  Thursday's!  Have  you 
forgotten  1" 

This  impertinence,  which  the  affront  had  been 
designedly  coaxing  forth,  never  failed  to  bring 
her  a  very  substantial  reward,  and  certainly  no 
reproof.  And  so  the  baby  was  spoiled  and  en- 
couraged in  her  wilful  little  ways  which  were  con- 
sidered the  "cutest  ever."  There  was  never  a 
time  in  all  her  life  when  she  would  not  willingly 
leave  affairs  ordinarily  attractive  to  cats,  to  come 
and  sit  serenely  on  some  lap,  with  a  bib  about  her 
neck,  a  sweet  smile  of  peace  on  her  face,  to  be  fed 
with  a  spoon.  She  never  reached  the  full  stature 
of  an  ordinary  cat,  but  grew  into  a  wondrously 
beautiful  little  beastie  and  developed  the  most 
independent,  self-contained,  evasive  personality 

[30] 


THURSDAY 

imaginable,  for  a  cat.  Looking  no  more  than 
half -grown  she  was  the  very  perfection  of  dainty 
symmetry,  her  coat  a  solid  glossy  black,  almost 
blue  in  its  depths.  She  was  remarkably  quick 
in  her  graceful  motions,  even  for  a  cat,  and  had 
the  dearest  little  round  blue  eyes,  just  scintillat- 
ing with  mischief  and  flaming  with  an  inordinate 
love  of  fun  which  radiated  to  the  tip  of  her  in- 
quisitive little  nose  and  from  there  to  the  quiver- 
ing end  of  her  wicked,  ecstatic  tail.  She  also 
possessed  such  queer  twists  in  a  highly  strung  and 
very  nervous  temperament,  that  her  erratic  moods 
were  variable  and  often  startling  surprises.  But 
she  was  always  singularly  human  and  stead- 
fast in  one  feminine  quality  and  that  was  in  liking 
to  do  just  as  she  pleased.  One  of  her  "  queer 
twists "  was,  at  various  intervals,  to  have  sudden 
spasms  of  hilarious  gaiety  and  to  give  vent  to  these 
frantic  spells  in  play  that  were  the  times  of  her 
life.  She  never  had  any  company  in  these  grand 
romps,  but  was  strangely  independent  and  wildly 
happy,  the  imp  of  play  which  had  possession, 
seeming  to  have  endless  sources  of  its  own  in  the 
way  of  society  and  amusement.  She  would  race 
" sideways "  through  the  house,  'her  "baby  blue 
eyes"  black  as  coal,  turn  double  " upside  downs," 
and  play  a  kind  of  hide-and-seek  all  by  herself, 
plainly  just  play  for  play's  sake  until  her  frolic, 
which  sometimes  rose  to  a  frenzy,  had  exhausted 
her  crazy  mood. 

Among  our  precious  lares  and  penates,  was  a 
magnificent  Irish  setter,  a  handsome  fellow  with 
a  coat  of  wavy  golden  red  hair  and  eyes  of  such 

[31] 


THURSDAY 

beseeching  softness  that  he  won  all  mankind. 
Until  the  advent  of  Thursday  he  had  been  sole 
proprietor  and  sovereign  owner  of  the  sunny  back 
porch  and  playground,  not  to  mention  the  hearts 
he  ruled.  But  with  the  coming  of  the  little  black 
lady  all  his  previous  rights  were  changed,  she,  with 
nonchalant  impudence,  taking  cool  and  unchal- 
lenged possession  of  all,  including  the  king  him- 
self, who  seemed  one  of  her  most  willing  subjects. 
She  quickly  learned  and  presumed  on  her  power 
over  him  but  with  heroic  patience  this  handsome 
fellow  yielded  glad  obedience  and  was  ever  ready 
to  bend  before  her  small  feminine  coquetry,  his 
gallantry  seeming  boundless.  Like  a  knight  of 
old,  he  was  always  rushing  to  her  rescue  and  ever 
espousing  her  cause,  using  his  strength  generously 
at  all  times  in  her  behalf.  If  she  happened  to 
cry  within  her  privileged  precincts  of  the  house, 
screened  from  his  entrance,  if  he  was  anywhere 
on  the  grounds  within  sound  of  her  call,  he  would 
instantly  come  to  her  succor,  peering  through  the 
screen  with  such  an  anxious,  troubled  expression 
in  his  dear  goldy-brown  eyes,  his  head  turned  first 
on  one  side  and  then  on  the  other,  a  way  setters 
have  when  trying  to  fathom  mysteries.  Having 
satisfied  himself  that  she  was  in  no  serious  trouble 
or  in  need  of  his  gallant  protectorship,  he  would 
lift  his  appealing  brown  eyes  to  us  with  an  air 
of  unutterable  reproach  for  his  unnecessary  dis- 
turbance, and  drop  to  the  floor  with  a  huge  sigh, 
perhaps  to  try  again  for  a  few  quiet  winks.  Life 
with  him  was  no  longer  dull  or  lacking  in  color 
after  Thursday  became  a  member  of  our  house- 

[32] 


THUESDAY 

hold,  but  was  full  of  rich  and  varied  interests 
for  every  waking  hour,  which  were  many  more 
than  formerly,  as  it  was  only  under  the  greatest 
difficulties  that  he  could  get  even  half  of  his  ac- 
customed hours  of  greedy  sleep  through  the  in- 
terrupted days.  Of  old,  his  choice  of  pleasant 
places  of  repose  had  been  the  shady  back  porch, 
where  he  would  stretch  himself  at  full  length, 
his  velvety  ears  lying  broad  and  flat,  and  he  still 
indulged  himself  in  this  chosen  spot,  although 
under  difficulties.  For  Thursday  had  soon  learned 
that  to  snuggle  close  to  his  curly  coat  meant 
warmth  and  comfort,  but  not  for  the  dog,  for 
it  teased  and  worried  his  naps  dreadfully  to  have 
her  cuddle  so  close.  However  as  he  seemed  loathe 
to  surrender  this  adopted  spot,  his  by  "right  of 
domain,"  he  was  most  gentlemanly  and  patient, 
never  even  saying  "bow."  When  sleepy  time 
came  the  kitten  would  boldly  hunt  his  resting 
place  and  nestle  under  the  softness  of  his  downy 
ear  for  her  siesta.  Feigning  sleep,  his  nose  be- 
tween his  paws  and  one  eye  half-open,  the  dog 
would  bide  the  time  when  she  was  fast  asleep  and 
then,  most  cautiously  and  carefully,  draw  himself 
away  in  order  to  have  his  ear  to  himself.  Little 
Lonesome,  feeling  the  want  of  her  comfortable 
covering,  would  sleepily  creep  under  his  ear  again 
and  the  setter  would  again,  with  touching  resig- 
nation, watch  his  chance  and  get  away.  This 
exchange  of  courtesies  would  go  on  until  the  dog 
evidently  realized  that  he  might  as  well  give  up 
and  let  the  little  wilful  torment  have  her  way. 
Or  there  might  be  times  when  he  would  get  his 

[23] 


THUESDAY 

lazy  self  up  and  off,  but  even  this ,  manoeuvre 
might  be  only  temporary  relief,  if  the  kitten  still 
longed  for  his  companionship.  Never  once  was 
the  dog  known  to  growl  or  fail  in  politeness,  even 
when  the  kitten  trespassed  on  his  hospitality  to  the 
extent  of  selecting  such  dainty  bits  from  his  dinner 
plate  as  pleased  her  fancy.  At  such  times  he 
would  stand  by,  big  and  stern,  wistfully  watching 
the  choice  pieces  disappear,  and  patiently  wait 
until  she  had  finished  her  selection  and  was  seated 
on  her  haunches  near  by,  washing  her  little  black 
face,  before  he  would  presume  to  take  that  which, 
in  her  gracious  indulgence,  she  had  left  for  him. 
In  this  elaborate  ceremony  of  her  toilet,  she  would 
sometimes  pause,  and  with  a  kind  of  pensive  won- 
dering, gaze  at  her  now  greedy  host.  In  this  atti- 
tude, with  one  tiny  paw  raised  meditatively,  and 
her  mouth  half-open  showing  a  bit  of  pink  tongue 
between  her  gleaming  teeth,  she  looked  as  if  actu- 
ally smiling  in  supreme  affability  on  an  attendant 
chamberlain.  At  all  times,  the  attitude  of  affected 
condescension  assumed  by  this  mite  of  a  kitten 
toward  her  big  gentlemanly  comrade,  was  so 
absurd  as  to  be  very  funny. 

And  so  the  summer  and  fall  months  passed  and 
the  dog  and  kitten  grew  in  friendship  and  intimacy 
and  were  an  endless  source  of  interest  to  the 
family.  Unfortunately  for  these  pets,  the  country 
home  was  soon  to  be  broken  up  and  closed  for  the 
winter.  Thursday's  devoted  friend  and  protector, 
the  setter,  was  sent  to  the  hunting  lodge,  and  a 
home  was  provided  for  the  kitten  with  a  friend 
who  lived  only  a  couple  of  miles  away. 

[34] 


THUESDAY 

As   SHE  NEVER  ATTAINED   THE   FULL 
STATUEE  OP  AN  ORDINARY  CAT,  SHE  ALWAYS 

LOOKED  BUT  HALF  GROWN 

Bur  WAS  THE  VERY  PERFECTION  OF  DAINTY 

SYMMETRY,  HER  COAT  A  SOLID 

BLACK,  ALMOST  BLUE 

IN  ITS  DEPTHS 


THUESDAY 

The  girl  cherished  this  little  darling  kitten 
which  she  had  rescued,  devotedly,  and  was  very 
sad  at  the  necessary  parting,  but  never  dreamed 
for  a  moment  but  that  she  would  be  the  only  one 
to  experience  any  regret.  She  thought,  of  course, 
that  the  heart  of  her  apparently  frivolous  little 
pet  would  readily  accept  the  new  conditions  with- 
out a  homesick  thought,  as  it  meant  the  same 
kindness,  food  and  shelter  to  which  she  had  been 
accustomed,  and  to  leave  her  alone  at  the  country 
house  was  out  of  the  question,  as  it  would  be 
to  risk  letting  her  perish  with  cold  and  hunger. 
So  the  kitten  was  carried  to  the  home  of  the  friend 
and  left,  with  a  big  heartache  but,  as  the  girl 
thought,  only  on  her  part. 

The  next  day  through  the  telephone  came  the 
report  that  Lady  Thursday  did  not  take  at  all 
kindly  to  her  change  of  residence,  but  expressed 
a  decided  dissatisfaction  with  the  new  order  of 
things,  scorning  all  food  with  a  painfully  injured 
air,  staring  straight  ahead  in  black  misery,  ignor- 
ing everybody  and  all  overtures  in  the  way  of 
coaxing,  petting  and  comforting.  Every  means 
possible  was  tried  to  make  her  feel  settled  and 
as  happy  as  a  kitten  ought  to  be  in  such  a  good 
home,  but  all  in  vain.  Late  in  the  afternoon  this 
bonnie  wee  bit  of  homesickness  appeared  at  our 
door,  looking  so  pathetically  small  and  weary, 
but  still  determined,  that  it  made  the  tears  come 
just  to  look  at  her.  She  was  as  quiet  and  demure 
as  an  injured  saint  but  there  was  an  anxious 
wistfulness  in  her  big  pleading  eyes  that  went 
straight  to  one's  heart.  She  evidently  realized 

[35] 


THUESDAY 

that  she  had  transgressed  the  law  in  eluding  the 
vigilance  of  her  keepers,  and  in  running  away, 
and  her  trembling  little  heart  was  thumping  a  wild 
tattoo.  But  her  mental  and  physical  rapture  at 
being  in  her  own  home  once  more  was  glowing 
in  triumphant  satisfaction  in  every  movement. 
And  that  she  had  been  shrewd  enough  to  find  her 
way  back  all  by  herself  in  a  road  where  there 
were  no  sign-posts  a  cat  might  read,  but  only 
scent  for  guide  was  also  obviously  a  source  of 
great  self -congratulation  to  her.  This  demonstra- 
tion of  preference  on  the  kitten's  part  for  her 
home,  and  for  her,  was  a  surprise  to  the  girl  and 
touched  her  heart,  for  she  had  not  thought  her 
saucy,  independent  little  favorite  capable  of  such 
deep  appreciation.  It  was  so  evident  that  this 
obstinate  little  pet  objected  to  this  change  of  abode 
that  it  was  with  the  greatest  reluctance  that  the 
girl  felt  forced  to  send  her  back  again.  There 
surely  could  be  no  mistaking  the  small  queen's 
sentiments  in  the  matter,  for  her  manner  was  so 
haughty  and  reproachful.  It  might  be  a  lovely 
joke  her  perfidious  family  were  playing  on  her, 
but  they  had  made  a  sad  mistake,  if  they  were 
serious,  to  think  for  one  moment  she  would  con- 
done such  treachery  or  that  she  would  tolerate 
the  other  house  as  home,  even  for  one  day.  She 
bestowed  a  royal  "not-to-do-it-again"  sort  of 
threat  on  all,  but  in  spite  of  her  scathing  remon- 
strance, she  was  told  of  the  absolute  need  she 
had  of  another  shelter,  consoled  and  again  car- 
ried to  the  distant  home,  rather  than  be  allowed 
her  stubborn  way  and  left  at  the  deserted  country 

[36] 


THUESDAY 

place  to  take  her  chances  against  starvation  and 
neglect. 

This  time  the  little  black  visitor  was  shown 
special  attention  by  the  rather  indignant  friends 
of  the  girl,  and  more  carefully  guarded*  If  she 
showed  a  tendency  to  wander,  she  was  made  a 
prisoner  in  the  hope  that  she  would  soon  forget 
her  former  home  and  accept  the  inevitable,  which 
from  their  point  of  view,  was  certainly  very  nice. 
Although  the  kitten  was  unnaturally  patient  and 
seemed  to  look  upon  their  soothing  efforts  with 
a  desire  to  be  soothed,  time  showed  that  she  re- 
mained, through  all,  unmoved  in  purpose,  prov- 
ing that  in  her  apparently  indifferent  and  trivial 
nature  there  were  depths  that  had  not  been  sus- 
pected. 

The  great  master  passion  of  home-love  and, 
for  a  small  cat,  a  tremendous  wilfulness  were  de- 
veloping in  her  sturdy  little  body.  She  would 
not  be  reconciled  to  this  new  home  but  was  slyly 
on  the  alert,  constantly  devising  all  sorts  of 
shrewd  ways  in  which  she  might  cheat  her  keepers 
and  gain  her  end. 

One  day  toward  evening,  their  vigilance  being 
somewhat  relaxed,  owing  to  her  seeming  submis- 
sion, she  managed  to  escape.  She  had  been  very 
crafty  in  her  "seeming  submission "  as  it  had 
evidently  been  only  a  subterfuge,  for  she  showed 
she  had  not  been  vanquished  by  any  manner  of 
means,  or  even  discouraged  by  the  delay.  All 
the  time  she  had  seemed  so  sad  and  passive  she 
must  have  been  only  biding  her  time  and  oppor- 
tunity, scheming  all  the  while  desperately  in 

[37] 


THUKSDAY 

feminine  ingenuity  to  outwit  her  jailors.  When 
finally  she  was  rewarded,  and  the  instant  she  was 
free,  she  went  scampering  down  the  path,  through 
the  timberland,  taking  by  instinct  the  " short  cut" 
which  was  the  nearest  and  straightest  way  to  the 
one  place  on  earth  to  her,  each  bounding  step 
keeping  time  to  the  homesick  beat  of  her  heart. 

Oh,  poor,  plucky,  obstinate  morsel  of  a  kitten ! 
If  there  had  only  been  some  kindly  hand  to  have 
turned  you  back;  turned  you  back  from  that 
demon,  hungry  and  savage,  lying  in  wait  for  you 
in  the  narrow  path  through  which  you  were  sure 
to  pass!  Oh,  that  there  had  been  some  Spirit 
of  Pity  that  cherishes  the  kittens,  to  have  had  a 
saving  compassion  on  you ! 

But  on  sped  the  flying  feet,  with  eyes  blind  to 
all  but  the  one  big  home-impulse  that  was  giving 
her  the  courage  of  ten.  All  grief,  disappointment 
and  heartaches  forgotten  as  the  old  friendly  place 
grew  nearer  and  nearer.  Down  through  the  val- 
ley and  up  the  fatal  hill,  racing  as  fast  as  she 
could  go  on  the  ragged  path,  clearing  brambles 
and  ditches  and  fallen  tree-trunks  with  flying 
leaps,  turning  neither  to  the  right  nor  the  left, 
going  straight  for  home.  Panting  and  throbbing 
she  finally  reached  a  tiny  roadway  among  the 
briars  and  undergrowth,  a  narrow  trail  seldom 
used  except  by  small  fur  and  those  in  a  hurry, 
like  Thursday.  Faster  and  faster  she  went  ex- 
ultingly  on  through  this  shadowy  thicket  to  the 
next  descent,  and  deeper  and  deeper  into  the  depth 
and  mystery  of  the  woods,  where  loomed  a  silent 
murderer,  set  in  rabbit  land  for  the  unwary,  which 

[38] 


THURSDAY 

had  marked  this  little  pitiful  victim  to  clutch  in 
its  fatal  curve. 

Have  courage,  little  Thursday,  and  turn  back. 
Oh,  in  mercy  turn  back  and  save  yourself  from 
the  horrible  fate  of  this  half -concealed  shadow  so 
near  to  you  now!  Or,  halt  an  instant  and  go 
round  this  deadly  trap.  Home  is  so  near,  only 
a  little  way  now.  Home !  Home !  almost  in  sight, 
in  answer  to  the  burning  desire  in  your  heart. 
A  sudden  stop!  The  twinkling  of  a  black  shape 
.twirling  in  the  air,  and  the  path  is  empty! 

The  deadly  grip  of  the  cruel  wire  has  borne 
Thursday  home  in  a  flash. 


[39] 


A  MINE,  A  MINER,  AND 
A  CAT 


A  MINE,  A  MINER,  AND 
A  CAT 


A  MINE,  A  MINER,  AND  A  CAT 

THE  mining  camps  of  California  in  the  days 
of  '49  are  full  of  romance  and  history  and 
any  man  who  has  once  tasted  their  free  inde- 
pendent adventure  can  never  more  escape  the 
influence.  The  gambling  chance  which  every 
miner  took  in  those  fascinating  days,  is  continually 
tempting  him  again  to  the  old  life.  This  charm, 
which  that  most  merciless  Enchantress  of  the  Cali- 
fornia Hills  casts  on  all  alike,  is  unfathomable,  and 
grips  the  mighty  as  well  as  the  weak.  The  quest 
of  gold,  which  rewarded  some  and  eluded  others 
in  those  days,  still  has  a  grappling  temptation  to 
every  man  who  has  once  been  under  its  spell. 
To  the  pioneer  Californian,  it  is  a  summons  for- 
ever luring  him  to  that  old  battle  ground  round 
the  big  shaft  where  the  sky  is  big  and  it  feels 
good  just  to  be  alive.  You  will  find  that  the  old- 
time  miners  forever  chafe  in  the  dullness  and 
conventionalities  of  any  humdrum  existence  along 
commercial  lines,  and  for  any  slight  excuse  will 
exultantly  take  the  wide  tramp  road  that  leads 

[43] 


A  MINE,  A  MINER  AND  A  CAT 

to  what  they  call  " God's  own  country. "  They 
are  found  ever  eager  to  give  body,  and  soul  if 
necessary,  joyously,  in  the  intoxicating  excitement 
this  fickle  sorceress  holds  out  to  them  in  the  game 
of  chance  which  they  think  must  win  in  the  end. 

One  of  these  sturdy  relics  of  the  early  days 
in  the  golden  west,  after  years  of  struggle  and 
vain  trials  to  settle  down  into  the  drudgery  of 
precarious  success  in  trade,  grew  tired  of  wait- 
ing for  the  miracle  of  prosperity  to  even  begin 
to  happen,  and  was  in  despair.  In  his  blue  dis- 
couragement those  dream  ghosts  of  the  happy 
mining  days  were  ungovernable  in  their  insistent 
presence  and  pulling  at  his  heart  strings  with 
an  almost  visible  and  steady  line. 

Long  ago  when  he  first  came  to  the  west,  in 
the  mad  rush  after  gold  in  '49  he  had  been  one 
of  the  "pardners"  to  locate  and  work  a  certain 
claim.  In  the  fever  and  scramble  of  making  a 
fortune  in  a  minute,  and  expecting  to  pick  up 
handfuls  of  gold  with  little  trouble,  this  company 
had  become  discouraged  at  the  slow  profits  yielded 
by  this  claim,  and  had  abandoned  it  upon  the 
report  of  much  richer  discoveries  farther  on,  he 
following  with  the  others.  During  all  these  years 
that  he  had  tried  to  settle  down  into  steady,  legiti- 
mate business  a  haunting  certainty  had  grown  in 
his  mind  that  they  had  been  too  hasty  in  abandon- 
ing this  mine.  The  remembrance  of  a  promising 
lead,  which  had  been  discovered  in  one  of  those 
hustling  days  and  which,  in  their  breathless  hurry 
for  big  lumps,  had  not  been  followed  faithfully 
enough,  and  consequently  had  been  overlooked  and 

[44] 


A  MINE,  A  MINER  AND  A  CAT 

forgotten,  obsessed  his  present  gloomy  outlook 
until  it  could  no  longer  be  ignored. 

One  especially  desperate  day,  when  affairs  had 
been  unusually  irksome,  he  sat  down  in  dejection 
and  thought  deep  and  hard  on  this  inward  and 
tantalizing  urge  to  the  old  mountains.  Immedi- 
ately following  this  quiet  hour  with  himself  he 
gave  up  the  effort  of  trying  to  succeed  in  his  pres- 
ent uncongenial  work,  and  throwing  discretion  to 
the  winds,  yielded  in  glorious  abandon  to  the  call 
in  his  blood,  ringing  too  loud  to  longer  oppose. 
Fortunately  there  were  no  ties  of  family  or  re- 
sponsibilities other  than  business  to  shake  off, 
so  shouldering  his  pick  and  shovel,  treasured 
through  all  these  years,  he  joyously  started  with 
his  chin  up  and  his  back  straight,  for  the  splendid 
freedom  of  the  old  familiar  hills.  His  destination 
the  long  abandoned  claim  hidden  away  in  the 
far-off  wilds,  where  there  was  a  chance,  sure, 
and  no  one  had  yet,  as  far  as  he  could  learn,  dis- 
covered the  "lead." 

He  determined  to  go  there  again,  to  work  it 
alone  this  time,  and  to  be  deliberate  and  to  stay 
with  it  until  the  hills  did  deliver  up  to  him  their 
royal  secret.  To  this  miner-man  it  meant  life, 
real  life,  health  and  above  all,  freedom,  with  a 
big  chance  of  a  fortune.  If  it  were  a  fool's  folly, 
he  would  gamely  take  a  "flyer"  and  abide  by  the 
result  at  any  cost. 

So  this  strong-handed,  broad-shouldered  man, 
big  in  heart  and  big  in  soul  and  a  lover  of  the 
silent  places,  in  answering  the  call  of  his  old  miner 
days,  set  his  hopeful  face  toward  the  great  moun- 

[45] 


A  MINE,  A  MINER  AND  A  CAT 

tains  and  the  days  to  come,  in  reckless  venture, 
with  only  faith,  a  pair  of  strong  arms  and  a  pick 
and  spade  to  help  him  solve  the  problem.  It  is  a 
well-known  fact  that  these  men  going  into  the 
wildness  and  loneliness  of  these  rugged  heights, 
cherish  a  cat  as  indispensable  to  their  camp  life ; 
as  important  an  addition  to  their  "grub  stakes " 
as  beans  and  coffee.  And  so  intimate  do  these 
two  become  under  their  isolated,  and  often  des- 
perate conditions,  that  an  almost  human  friend- 
ship and  affection  springs  up  between  them. 

At  the  last  trading  post  nearest  the  mine  the 
man  planned  to  "  outfit "  and  to  secure  a  four- 
footed  partner.  The  cat  he  thought  would  be  so 
easy  that  he  never  gave  it  a  second  thought,  but 
on  his  arrival  at  the  little  town  busied  himself 
packing  and  getting  everything  in  light  trans- 
portation order  for  the  "return  horse"  on  the 
morrow.  These  arrangements  off  his  mind,  he 
got  very  busy  in  looking  about  for  the  last  re- 
quisite, a  cat.  His  intentions  in  regard  to  ac- 
quiring one  were  perfectly  honorable.  He  would 
beg  one  if  possible,  buy  one  if  necessary,  but 
he  must  have  a  cat  at  any  price,  not  only  for  its 
company  and  usefulness,  but  in  accordance  with 
all  past  traditions  of  mines  and  miners.  There 
were  cats  and  cats  a  plenty  in  this  little  mining 
town,  clinging  to  the  rough  side  of  the  granite 
hill,  but,  as  it  seemed,  none  to  spare.  Not  one 
to  give  away  and  not  one  to  sell,  and  he  might 
as  well  have  tried  to  barter  with  the  air,  as  no 
price  or  accommodation  could  induce  any  one  of 
them  to  part  with  one  of  their  precious  little  beasts, 

[46] 


A  MINE,  A  MINER  AND  A  CAT 

and  he  was  in  despair.  After  strenuous  hours 
of  vain  persuasion,  which  had  eliminated  the  ques- 
tion of  choice  or  price  in  regard  to  the  cat,  he 
had  gone  to  the  public  house  for  supper,  exhausted 
and  out  of  patience,  but  none  the  less  determined 
on  having  the  desired  "  partner. "  The  early  star- 
light found  him  sitting  on  the  dark  veranda,  soli- 
tary and  alone,  pondering  the  cat  question,  not  as 
to  spots  or  breeding  or  even  a  cat,  but  as  to  which, 
and  how.  He  must  have  a  cat  and  these  people 
being  the  last  resort  would  have  to  furnish  it 
at  whatever  cost.  With  his  chair  tilted  back, 
his  hands  deep  in  his  pockets  and  his  face  turned 
heavenward  he  seemed  to  be  looking  at  the  stars 
for  inspiration,  and  from  the  short,  quick  puffs 
and  lively  glow  of  his  pipe,  it  was  evident  he  was 
thinking  hard.  After  he  had  finished  his  smoke 
in  silent  cogitation  with  the  sky,  he  seemed  to 
have  settled  the  difficult  problem  to  his  satisfac- 
tion, for  when  he  rose  to  "turn  in"  there  was 
the  gleam  of  a  slow  smile  on  his  rugged  face. 
Knocking  out  his  pipe  and  brushing  the  ashes 
from  his  breast,  with  a  huge  yawn,  he  stretched 
his  arms  up  over  his  six  feet  of  length,  hardening 
his  muscles  for  the  morrow,  and  sauntered  in- 
doors for  the  few  short  hours  of  rest  in  a  bed, 
which  luxury  he  allowed  himself  as  a  grand  finale 
to  civilization. 

In  what  seemed  to  him  but  a  moment  later, 
it  was  the  next  morning,  and  throwing  aside  the 
blankets  he  was  up  and  out  in  the  chill  gray  dawn 
without  disturbing  any  of  the  household.  As  the 
eastern  sky  lightened  the  purple  mists,  he  trudged 

[47] 


A  MINE,  A  MINER  AND  A  CAT 

cheerily  along  under  the  frosty  twinkle  of  the 
receding  stars,  his  back  to  the  dusty  little  hamlet 
and  a  triumphant  smile  of  contented  satisfaction 
beaming  on  his  happy  face,  turned  toward  the 
gleaming  snow  peaks  of  to-morrow.  No  one  would 
have  suspected  this  big  happy  tramp  of  having 
an  infamous  secret  on  his  conscience  or  have  sur- 
mised that  he  harbored  a  wee  felony  snuggled 
closely  inside  of  his  outer  flannel  shirt.  As  he 
had  been  in  somewhat  of  a  hurry  in  committing 
this  crime,  he  had  not  been  over-scrupulous  in 
selecting  any  particular  kind  of  a  cat.  Still,  as 
he  was  at  last  in  possession  of  a  live  kitten,  a 
something  he  felt  he  could  not  have  faced  the 
solitude  and  silence  of  his  lonely  camp  life  with- 
out, in  sweet  content  he  would  never  be  critical. 
This  victory  in  the  small  matter  of  a  small  cat, 
attested  well  for  his  future,  showing  that  he  had 
resources  and  skillful  ways  of  his  own  in  circum- 
venting an  adverse  fate,  and  that  he  was  made 
of  the  stuff  that  wins  in  the  end. 

Just  as  the  white  mountain  peaks,  far  above 
the  timber  line,  caught  the  first  pink  glory  of 
the  coming  sun,  the  man  with  the  light  of  hope 
in  his  dark  eyes,  reached  the  foothills.  He  crossed 
the  first  low  divide,  and  in  the  sheltered  ravine 
beyond  stopped  beside  a  tiny  trickle  of  snow  water, 
flashing  gently  down  among  the  boulders,  and 
made  camp  for  breaking  his  fast.  Here  for  the 
first  time  he  took  from  his  bosom  the  scraggy 
little  treasure  for  which  he  had  risked  his  honest 
reputation,  and  which  had  safely  slept,  curled  in 
its  snug  quarters,  all  the  way. 

[48] 


A  MINE,  A  MINER  AND  A  CAT 

The  very  first  act  of  the  astonished  small  ten- 
derfoot on  this  rather  rude  awakening  and  in- 
troduction, was  to  make  a  wild  dash  for  liberty, 
which  came  near  being  a  total  eclipse  of  their 
acquaintance.  It  was  only  after  a  very  lively 
chase,  in  which  the  man  had  to  hide  his  terrible 
anxiety  and  to  use  the  utmost  patient  cunning, 
that  the  frightened  little  animal  was  captured 
by  his  more  than  frightened  mate.  In  the  quiet 
moments  that  followed,  when  they  were  sizing 
each  other  up  by  the  comfort  of  their  little  friend- 
ship fire,  their  intimacy  began.  In  admonition 
his  baby  highness  was  given  a  serious  and  pro- 
found lecture  on  the  futility  of  having  such  in- 
dependent ideas  as  he  seemed  to  possess.  The 
poor  little  motherless  captive  looked  meek  and 
helpless  enough  beside  the  big  man,  and  in  this 
big  unknown  world,  his  great  baby  eyes  glancing 
and  searching  about  in  vague  apprehension;  but 
although  he  was  terribly  puzzled  over  the  situa- 
tion, he  was  finally  brought  to  reason  and  to  the 
straight  and  narrow  path  of  obedience. 

With  a  firm  and  tender  touch,  electric  with 
love  and  sympathy,  the  man  stroked  his  prize, 
answering  the  questioning,  luminous  yellow  eyes 
so  steadily  fixed  on  his  own  dark  ones,  with  a 
gaze  of  such  mysterious  power  and  assurance  that 
the  kitten  sat  charmed,  with  curling  paws,  the 
wonder-stare  melting  into  one  of  understanding 
and  implicit  trust,  that  was  to  be  lifelong.  So 
comforting  was  the  man's  trick  of  hand  and  voice, 
that  this  trying  moment  ended  forever  all  con- 
troversy as  to  doctrine  or  discipline  between  them. 

[49] 


A  MINE,  A  MINER  AND  A  CAT 
From  that  momentous  time  on,  as  long  as  they 
lived  together,  they  fought  out  the  grim  battle 
in  moments  of  importance,  as  of  one  mind.  Al- 
ready the  touch  of  his  master  hand  and  the  sound 
of  his  commanding  voice  had  taken  tight  hold  of 
the  baby  heart  and  held  it  like  magic,  and  as 
the  kitten  grew  in  wisdom  and  caution  he  learned 
to  trust  this  big  man  more  and  more,  as  one  who 
understood  and  sympathized. 

In  resuming  their  tramp,  the  rougher  country 
began  and  the  trail  was  a  puzzle.  The  man  could 
not  find  even  a  ghost  of  a  track,  as  he  worked  his 
way  through  the  thick  masses  of  underbrush,  for 
it  had  been  years  since  anybody  had  traveled  this 
way.  But  mile  after  mile,  crossing  canons,  over 
small  mountains,  up  and  down,  in  and  out,  the 
hardy  pioneer  picked  his  difficult  way  across  the 
trackless  country,  going  straight,  guided  by  a 
miner  >s  mysterious  sixth  sense,  which  is  an  in- 
stinct enabling  him  to  see  things  and  read  things 
to  which  others  are  blind. 

Toward  the  last  of  the  daylight,  on  the  second 
day,  these  tired  tramps,  the  man  footsore  but 
with  unwearied  spirits  came  upon  the  small  clear- 
ing of  the  old  mining  camp  of  the  halcyon  days 
of  '49.  Once  it  had  swarmed  with  eager,  buoyant 
men,  but  now  it  lay  deserted  and  wrapped  in 
solitude.  In  great  exhilaration  they  took  posses- 
sion of  the  one  and  only  remaining  dilapidated 
shack,  standing,  dark  and  doorless,  silhouetted 
against  the  fading  light.  Nobody  had  been  in 
this  forsaken  place  or  probably  thought  of  it  for 
years  and  years.  In  its  prime  it  had  been  a  rather 

[50] 


A  MINE,  A  MINEE  AND  A  CAT 

pretentious  cabin  of  the  regulation  kind  built  of 
logs  but  was  now  only  a  suggestion  of  its  former 
grandeur.  Hordes  of  small  furry  tribes  were 
"holding  down  the  claim "  and  using  its  shelter 
to  rear  generations  of  their  kind.  The  fireplace, 
with  its  great  outside  chimney,  built  of  mud  and 
rocks,  was  standing  intact,  the  smut  of  the  old  log 
fires  still  clinging  inside  where  myriads  of  bats 
had  hung  their  nests  against  its  sooty  walls. 

The  new  arrivals  took  possession  of  this  old- 
timer  under  a  torrent  of  abusive,  squeaky  pro- 
test that  sounded  very  much  like  "  cussing, "  this 
intrusion  into  their  domain  being  highly  resented 
by  .the  present  tenants.  But  the  strangers  had 
come  'with  a  purpose,  and  to  stay,  so  took  pos- 
session of  the  hut  as  with  a  flourish  of  trumpets, 
making  preparations  for  the  night,  scattering  the 
scolding  families  to  temporary  hiding,  and  an- 
ticipating no  end  of  fun  in  banishing  them  forever 
to  their  own  territory.  In  time  the  miner  settled 
down  into  a  daily  routine  of  business  and  pleasure, 
with  only  the  cat  and  the  solemn  and  magnificent 
trees  for  company.  He  was  wholly  happy  in  get- 
ting the  cabin  into  living  order,  delightfully  sys- 
tematic in  regulating  the  primitive  housekeeping 
arrangements,  and  shamefully  contented  with  the 
homely  result,  but  always  on  the  lookout  for 
golden  possibilities.  He  was  not  conscious  of  a 
dull  or  lonesome  moment  in  the  heavenly  large- 
ness of  the  pure  mountain  air,  but  every  day  was 
one  of  stirring  fascination  to  him  in  the  thought 
of  what  might  come  with  the  next  turn  of  the 
shovel. 

[51] 


A  MINE,  A  MINEE  AND  A  CAT 

The  great  peace  and  majesty  of  the  California 
mountains,  glowing  in  their  summer  fulness,  was 
marvelous  to  the  city  man,  who  had  been  aching 
for  these  exuberant  heights  so  long.  The  crisp 
keen  air  was  like  wine  in  his  veins  and  made  his 
blood  tingle.  As  he  bared  his  arms  with  cheerful 
determination  his  whole  being  thrilled  and  he 
struck  and  dug  into  the  flinty  rock  with  a  strength 
born  of  a  faith,  that  however  he  might  blunder, 
the  gods  would  be  kind  and  he  would  come  to  his 
own  in  the  end. 

Each  wonderful  day  was  followed  by  another 
as  wonderful,  the  weeks  speeding  as  lightly  as 
homing  birds.  If  there  were  troubles  that  some- 
times seemed  dark  and  dreadful,  and  difficulties 
hard  to  overcome,  the  two  were  happy,  the  cat 
being  the  very  heart  of  the  camp  life  and  living 
on  the  most  intimate  terms  of  love  and  equality 
with  his  devoted  master  in  the  leveling  process 
of  their  primitive  life.  The  kitten  had  grown 
into  the  utmost  splendid  stature  of  his  race,  go- 
ing from  strength  to  strength,  being  all  muscle 
and  nerve,  unusually  broad  of  chest,  looking  as 
if  bred  to  the  mountain  fastness  and  able  to  en- 
dure all  sorts  of  pioneer  hardships.  His  baby 
coat  was  now  thick  and  silky  fur  and  was  grow- 
ing more  glossy  and  beautiful  every  day,  so  that 
the  man  in  his  pride  gazed  upon  him  with  an  eye 
of  rapture  in  the  possession,  and  felt  sure  that 
in  his  successful  raid  into  the  enemy's  camp,  he 
had  unwittingly  stumbled  on  something  beyond 
the  common  kind.  Handsome,  shining  and  saucy, 
he  was  wonderfully  wise  and  cunning  for  a  cat, 

[52] 


THE   CAT 

THE  KITTEN   HAD  GROWN  INTO  THE 
MOST    SPLENDID   BIGNESS   OF  His  RACE, 

HANDSOME,  SHINING  AND  SAUCY, 

ALL  MUSCLE  AND  NERVE,  UNUSUALLY  BROAD 

OF  CHEST  AND  LOOKING  AS  IF  BRED  TO 

THE  MOUNTAIN  FASTNESS  AND 

ABLE  TO  ENDURE 
ALL   SORTS   OF  PIONEER  HARDSHIPS 


A  MINE,  A  MINER  AND  A  CAT 

having  no  equal  in  the  chase.  The  vain  little 
creatures  of  the  forest,  grown  bold  and  reckless 
and  almost  fearless  during  the  years  that  they 
had  been  unmolested,  did  not  have  half  a  chance, 
and  learned  that  they  must  exert  their  utmost 
to  escape  this  cruel  forager. 

It  was  in  the  evening,  when  pick  and  shovel 
were  standing  sentinel  in  the  corner  and  the  chim- 
ney sending  its  curly  blue  beacons  of  comfort 
toward  the  sky,  that  this  wonderful  "pardner" 
of  the  miner  shone  in  all  the  glory  of  his  do- 
mestic virtues,  giving  the  rough  cabin  the  grace 
and  semblance  of  home.  This  evening  hour  be- 
stowed happiness  on  both  the  man  and  the  cat, 
and  marked  the  very  height  of  their  goodfellow- 
ship.  The  man,  his  day's  work  over,  steeped  in 
the  tang  of  the  pine  logs  roaring  in  the  huge 
fireplace,  was  at  rest  and  at  peace  with  all  the 
world,  puffing  voluminous  clouds  from  his  pipe. 
His  drowsy  friend,  too,  was  filled  to  the  heart 
with  the  warmth  from  the  ruddy  logs  and,  in 
blinking  satisfaction,  would  occasionally  relieve 
his  overflowing  gratitude  by  low  throaty  mur- 
murs of  blissful  content.  These  tranquil  hours 
by  the  fire  certainly  atoned  for  many  hardships, 
and  feeling  such  a  glow  of  nameless  satisfaction 
in  the  snug,  solitary  enjoyment  of  them,  the  thank- 
ful man  was  more  than  compensated  for  all  the 
sacrifices  he  had  made.  Being  a  willing,  self- 
imposed  exile,  he  felt  that  his  blessings  were  more 
than  he  really  deserved. 

In  the  narrow  canon  at  the  base  of  these  moun- 
tains, closing  it  in  on  both  sides,  was  where  the 

[53] 


A  MINE,  A  MINER  AND  A  CAT 
miner  was  following  the  old  lead  in  which  he 
had  so  much  faith.  In  the  rocky  bottom  grew 
scraggy  fir  and  pine  trees  and  in  the  crevice  at 
the  very  bottom,  a  little  stream  hurried  along, 
a  trifling  affair  at  this  time  of  the  year,  but  in 
the  winter  assuming  the  proportions  of  a  raging 
torrent,  as  it  was  fed  from  the  great  volume  of 
water  that  fell  from  the  heights  above.  Here 
the  miner  washed  his  "pay  dirt"  at  the  "clean 
up,"  and  it  was  also  the  cat's  happy  hunting 
ground,  for  it  was  the  home  of  the  wood  mice, 
chipmunks,  squirrels  and  other  "small  deer"  nut- 
ting among  the  pines  and  going  their  ways  boldly 
and  busily,  thoroughly  intent  on  the  business  of 
living  and  making  a  living. 

The  cat  roamed  these  wilds  freely,  foraging 
unchallenged,  exploring  with  eyes  and  nose  every 
tree,  hollow  and  boulder,  for  he,  too,  was  a  prac- 
tical, busy  cat,  making  a  living,  as  he  had  to 
work  out  his  own  salvation  in  this  respect.  He 
certainly  had  the  right  of  way  in  this  world  of 
forage,  and  the  thrifty  little  bodies  that  in  the 
days  of  abundance  would  prepare  for  a  day  of 
need,  had  to  be  very  wily  as  to  where  they  laid 
their  stores,  for  the  cat  would  nose  and  ferret 
out  their  most  secret  hiding  places. 

One  morning  the  miner,  taking  his  dirt  to 
the  ravine,  found  the  cat  vigorously  digging  in 
the  loose  earth  at  the  opening  of  a  gigantic  fissure 
in  the  rocky  peaks,  a  fissure  that  led  in  gradual 
ascent,  its  sides  sheer  and  steep,  to  the  peaks 
above.  So  intent  was  the  cat  on  his  quarry  that 
he  did  not  notice  his  master's  greeting,  but  kept 

[54] 


A  MINE,  A  MINER  AND  A  CAT 

the  dry  earth  briskly  flying  to  the  right  and  left. 
The  man  supposed,  as  a  matter  of  course,  that 
he  was  on  a  scent  and  had  cornered  some  game 
in  its  den,  and  in  careless  sympathy  thought  to 
help  him  out  and  struck  his  shovel  deep  into  the 
loose  earth.  As  he  turned  the  heavy  load  he 
gasped,  for  he  found  it  freighted  with  sparkling 
metal.  He  rubbed  his  eyes  in  wonder,  dazed  with 
astonishment,  looking  first  at  the  cat  now  sitting 
demurely  by  with  a  satisfied  air,  as  if  he  had 
done  his  part  and  then  at  the  twinkling  scales 
of  gold  blinking  up  at  him  as  he  shifted  it  through 
his  shaking  fingers.  This  sudden  realization  of 
the  hopes  of  all  the  long  hard  years  and  the  past 
months  of  active  search,  staggered  his  faculties. 
In  a  bewildered  way  he  fingered  the  gravel  in 
his  hand,  and  wondered  if  it  could  be  that  he 
had  "struck  it  rich"  this  time;  if  so,  it  was  surely 
this  prince  of  cats,  either  by  chance  or  luck,  that 
had  proven  the  cleverer  prospector  of  the  two. 

He  followed  the  deep  narrow  gulch  on  and  on, 
up  and  up,  not  for  an  instant  suspecting  the  mar- 
velous wealth  it  would  reveal.  He  was  lured  on 
by  frequently  finding  deep  and  rich  pockets  of 
yellow  ore,  mixed  with  water- worn  loose  rocks  and 
dirt,  which  evidently  had  been  collecting  in  this 
rough  trough  for  a  million  years,  washed  down 
from  the  steep  sides  and  many  peaks  above  and 
around. 

When  night  came  down,  shutting  the  canon 
in  absolute  darkness,  it  roused  the  man  from  his 
golden  dream  with  a  start,  and  he  straightened 
his  bent,  aching  body  and  mopped  his  hot  fore- 

[55] 


A  MINE,  A  MINER  AND  A  CAT 
head.  His  first  thought  was  for  the  cat,  totally 
forgotten  through  all  these  absorbing  hours,  and 
an  instant  of  self-reproach  for  fear  he  had  not 
followed,  but  had  gone  back  to  the  cabin  at  the 
usual  time.  At  his  startled  call  the  neglected 
cat  came  rubbing  his  comforting  presence  about 
his  feet,  showing  that  he  had  been  faithful  all 
through  the  long  day  in  which  he  had  not  been 
noticed.  This  God-sent  lucky  chum,  that  had 
brought  him  the  great  good  fortune,  had  unmis- 
takably an  air  of  triumph  gleaming  from  the 
depths  of  his  great  black  pupils,  and  his  beautiful 
sleek  body  assumed  an  attitude  scandalously  near 
a  swagger,  as  if  waiting  for  this  opportunity  to 
presume  on  his  partnership  in  this  affair,  to  ad- 
vise his  master  that  they  had  better  be  getting 
home.  The  miner  instantly  recognized  the  justice 
of  his  impertinence  and  caught  him  up  in  his 
arms,  and  they  camped  right  there  where  they 
were  through  the  short,  starry  night,  hugged 
close. 

At  the  first  faint  glimmering  of  day,  the  miner 
and  the  cat  found  their  way  back  to  the  cabin. 
The  man  had  pulled  himself  together  by  this  time 
and  had  his  nerve  steadied  back  into  its  wonted 
control  and  his  brain  normal,  in  good  working 
order.  After  his  night 's  rest,  in  which  the  calm 
had  returned  to  his  overwrought  imagination,  he 
was  able  to  meditate  reasonably  on  the  good  for- 
tune which  began  now  to  assume  definite  shape. 
To  convince  himself  past  all  doubting,  he  drew 
from  his  pockets  the  yellow  proof.  There  was 
no  doubt  about  its  being  the  real  thing  and  he 

[56] 


A  MINE,  A  MINER  AND  A  CAT 

lifted  his  hat  in  gratitude  to  the  cat,  for  this  little 
prospector  had  certainly  opened  up  for  him  the 
best  lead  in  the  whole  country.  The  magnitude 
of  what  this  developed  was  more  than  he  ever 
dreamed  could  be.  It  seemed  to  him  that  all  the 
gold  that  God  ever  gave  to  the  world  was  in  that 
one  gulch,  and  there  it  lay  unappropriated  from 
end  to  end.  It  was  like  an  Aladdin's  fairy  lamp, 
a  gift  of  the  gods.  Millions  were  there  and  all 
there  was  to  do  was  to  pick  up  the  yellow  lumps. 
How  this  golden  placer  could  have  lain  there, 
hidden  in  the  sand  and  gravel  of  this  fissure  so 
long  undiscovered,  was  a  mystery  that  baffled 
even  the  miner's  most  profound  attempts  to  con- 
jecture. He  had  simply  to  accept  his  good  for- 
tune with  a  glad  heart,  as  one  of  the  favored 
caresses  of  the  Enchantress  of  the  Hills.  His 
luck  in  being  the  "hundredth  man"  was,  he 
claimed,  all  owing  to  his  wonderful  mascot,  that 
in  a  time  of  desperation  he  had  just  gone  out 
and  annexed.  His  mate  shared  sympathetically 
in  the  sense  of  well-being  in  these  great  days  of 
success,  and  must  have  realized,  from  the  almost 
reverent  homage  that  was  accorded  him,  that  he 
had  played  some  very  important  part  in  winning 
the  game. 

And  the  partners  linger  and  linger,  rejoicing 
in  the  big  loneliness  of  this  little  paradise  all 
their  own,  ever  happy  and  without  a  care,  their 
cheery  hearts  growing  bigger  and  bigger  in  un- 
broken friendship.  The  miner  knows  that  just 
"over  yonder,"  beyond  the  purple  twilight,  is 
the  busy  world  and  that  he  can  "clean  up"  and 

[57] 


A  MINE,  A  MINER  AND  A  CAT 
go  back  to  things  and  the  life  of  people  of  af- 
fairs at  any  moment.  Yet  he  stays  on,  loving 
this  life  under  the  sky,  of  joy  and  independence, 
hardship  and  adventure,  with  its  splendid  achieve- 
ment, too  much  to  make  any  change  in  the  happy 
order  of  things. 


[58] 


AiDA  AND  SAADI 


AIDA  AND  SAADI 

THE  contented  purr  of  "Home  Sweet  Home" 
on  the  hearth,  by  a  resident  kitten,  was  the 
one  touch  of  coziness  lacking  in  our  newly  ac- 
quired country  bungalow. 

Seeing  an  exhibition  of  thoroughbreds  adver- 
tised, with  many  for  sale,  a  trip  was  made  for  the 
sole  purpose  of  filling  this  pleasant  need  in  our 
comfortable  chimney  corner,  and  so  making  our 
little  menage  complete.  On  arriving  at  the 
crowded  display  rooms,  where  each  cat's  family 
ancestors  were  found  carefully  recorded,  the  prob- 
lem of  selecting  the  correct  kitten,  among  so  be- 
wildering a  collection  of  purple  pedigrees,  was  a 
rather  serious  one.  They  all  looked  so  fuzzy, 
chubby  and  attractive  that  we  wanted  them  all, 
and  it  was  impossible  to  decide  on  just  one.  After 
long  and  careful  consideration,  two  babies  were 
finally  selected  for  their  special  beauty  and  dainti- 
ness, as  the  ones  most  likely  to  blend  harmoni- 
ously with  the  crackle  of  our  cheerful  fire,  and 
the  singing  of  the  evening  tea  urn  in  our  bungalow. 

[61] 


AfDA  AND   SAADI 

The  homeward  journey,  with  the  tiny  prin- 
cesses carried  carefully  and  almost  awesomely, 
was  one  of  suppressed,  but  anticipated  triumph, 
in  being  the  fortunate  possessors  of  something 
worth  while  in  cats  and  something  that  would 
doubtless  become  real  blessings  under  the  careful 
training  and  wise  discipline  we  were  already 
planning. 

On  reaching  home  and  joyously  throwing  back 
the  cover  of  the  padded  traveling  basket,  we  found 
the  expected  excitement  painfully  lacking;  there 
was  no  eager  bounding  of  the  released  little  cap- 
tives as  would  be  most  natural  in  ordinary  kit- 
tens, and  which  we  had  expected  twofold  in  these 
extraordinary  ones,  not  even  a  friendly  mew — 
just  an  awkward  silence,  with  two  of  the  most 
pathetic,  tired  looking  bunches  of  royalty  star- 
ing up  from  the  basket,  with  frightened  eyes. 

We  gently  lifted  the  scared,  chrysanthemum- 
like  blossoms  of  fur  from  the  basket  and  silently 
but  proudly  placed  them  on  the  floor  in  order  to 
display  their  blue-blooded  points,  that  all  might 
be  properly  awed.  But  even  then,  in  spite  of 
their  beauty,  which  all  acknowledged,  they  failed 
to  make  any  sort  of  pleasant  impression,  but  lay 
just  as  they  had  been  placed,  crouching  almost 
flat  in  shrinking  terror  of  their  new  surround- 
ings. As  they  cowered  there  in  cringing,  pathetic 
helplessness,  they  looked  like  almost  anything  but 
kittens  to  be  proud  of,  and  the  audience  smiled 
incredulously,  while  I  as  their  sponsor  in  mo- 
mentary chagrin  and  contrition,  wondered  if,  per- 
haps, in  pride,  I  had  not  been  too  ambitious  in 

[62] 


AIDA  AND   SAADI 

making  a  selection  of  such  royal  daintiness.  For, 
might  it  not  be  that  the  solemnity  of  such  a  long 
line  of  lineage  would  result  in  their  being  a  ter- 
rible disappointment  as  mere  kittens,  and  what  we 
had  planned  on  having  was  nice,  fat,  cheery,  comfy 
playfellows.     The  poor  small  mites  of  big  pedi- 
gree were  certainly  woefully  depressing  under  the 
present   strain,   and  at  this   rather  inopportune 
moment  it  was  cheerfully  suggested  that  I  might 
possibly  have  done  better  in  my  investment,  and 
perhaps  realized  a  greater  profit,  with  the  home- 
made "just  cat"  variety.     But  I  ignored  these 
sarcastic  insinuations  and  would  not  be  disheart- 
ened, for  my  treasures  were  of  the  renowned  Per- 
sian species  and  I  was  still  hopeful  that  the  purity 
of  the  blood  which  circulated  in  their  veins  would 
yet  prove  its  worth.    Even  to  the  skeptical,  they 
showed   that   they  were   unmistakably   the   real 
article  by  an  elegance  of  finish  throughout,  and 
that  they  were  of  the  purest  breeding,  for  their 
coats  were  unusually  long,  with  soft,  full,  fluffy 
scruffs  and  little  tufts  of  hair  growing  out  of 
their  thin  pink  ears  and  between  their  darling 
chubby  toes. 

At  first  it  did  seem  as  if,  with  their  advent, 
a  rather  serious  and  unnecessary  responsibility 
had  been  thrust  upon  an  inexperienced  household, 
for  the  risk  in  rearing  these  tender  thoroughbreds 
was  perhaps  too  great  to  assume  without  the  aid 
of  a  natural  parent.  Fortunately  for  us,  the  mel- 
ancholy period  of  their  abrupt  and  rather  shocking 
orphanage  soon  passed,  and  under  our  loving  care 
the  memory  of  mother  gradually  faded  away. 

[63] 


A1DA  AND   SAADI 

They  grew  and  throve  like  plain  ordinary  kittens 
and  soon  began  to  frolic  and  take  on  the  gladness 
of  life,  in  spite  of  the  deprivation  of  a  real 
mother's  cuddling  and  nursing. 

As  our  acquaintance  grew  into  one  of  weeks, 
we  discovered  that  there  would  be  no  lack  of  enter- 
tainment, for  the  royal  babies  took  life  in  doses  of 
il doing  things"  most  of  the  time.  Surely  no  one 
could  accuse  them  of  being  bereft  of  temperament, 
as  we  had  feared,  for  they  possessed  an  intense 
and  heartbreaking  inclination  for  excitement  in 
various  varieties  all  the  time,  quite  enough  to 
reassure  even  the  most  doubting  that  we  were  in 
no  danger  of  not  getting  our  money's  worth  in 
lively  kittens.  In  fact  the  innocent  infants' 
progress  along  the  lines  of  cute  and  daring  ad- 
venture caused  daily  and  almost  hourly  shocks, 
as  they  seemed  uncanny  in  resourcefulness  and 
absolutely  fearless  in  devising  all  sorts  of  startling 
surprises  in  the  way  of  miscellaneous  mischief, 
counting  that  day  as  naught  and  unprofitable 
which  brought  forth  nothing  new  in  the  way  of 
satanic  curiosity  and  inspiration  for  getting  into 
trouble. 

The  whole  household  fell  under  the  spell  of 
their  charm  and  were  their  faithful  adorers,  the 
kittens  being  the  deities  before  which  were  offered 
up  daily  homage,  and  all  lent  a  helping  hand  in 
their  "spoiling"  as  well  as  in  their  education. 
In  no  time,  it  seemed,  they  became  quite  accom- 
plished in  the  understanding  of  certain  words 
taught  them  in  painful  seriousness  and  were  soon 
trained  to  ask  for  many  little  services  with  such 

[64] 


AIDA  AND   SAADI 

charming  and  almost  human  ways  as  to  have 
conquered  the  most  obdurate  heart,  had  there  been 
any.  They  were  wondrous  wise  and  certainly 
marvellously  clever  for  kittens,  and  we  could  not 
help  being  very  proud  and  a  little  boastful  of 
their  achievements  along  kitten  lines,  as  well  as 
of  their  strikingly  elegant  appearance.  There  was 
nothing  commonplace  about  them.  Even  their 
wild  and  hilarious  playfulness  was  high  tragedy, 
having  such  concentration  of  energy  in  it  that, 
as  they  grew  older,  it  developed  into  a  big  bump 
of  bad,  bold  destructiveness.  Also,  time  proved 
that  they  possessed  a  decidedly  feminine  and  in- 
satiable love  of  investigation  and  a  tragic  thirst 
for  information,  especially  in  natural  history. 

This  swelling  protuberance  of  inquisitiveness 
as  regards  the  earth  and  its  various  productions 
of  feathered  creatures  was  taking  them  nearly 
every  day  on  long  excursions  into  the  near-by 
woods,  often  keeping  them  absent  for  hours  at  a 
time  causing  us  growing  anxiety  as  to  their  safety. 
As  this  trip  to  the  woods  became  an  almost  daily 
after-breakfast  custom  my  curiosity  was  roused 
to  such  an  extent  that  I  determined  that  I,  too, 
would  stroll  forth  the  next  morning  to  contemplate 
nature,  and  if  possible,  incidentally  discover  the 
fascination  that  was  keeping  the  infants  so  much 
from  home.  The  suggestion  that  they  might  be 
even  looking  at  the  little  birds  with  evil  intent, 
made  me  indignant;  it  was  unbelievable  those 
ingenuous  eyes  could  be  so  guileful,  yet  some- 
how I  shivered  with  a  vague  premonition.  Ee- 
sentfully  I  argued  that  they  were  too  young  for 

[65] 


AIDA  AND   SAADI 

such  cruelty;  moreover  they  were  of  such  royal 
blood,  princesses  of  their  kind,  that  one  could 
hardly  imagine  their  doing  anything  so  scan- 
dalously plebeian. 

However,  the  next  morning,  with  secret  and 
rather  ominous  forebodings,  I  sauntered  away  in 
the  bright  May  sunshine,  through  our  old- 
fashioned  garden  and  up  toward  the  woods,  two 
small  downy  puffs  bounding  along  by  my  side  as 
lightly  as  if  blown  by  the  wind,  their  round  little 
eyes  like  shining  suns  in  their  tiny  fluffy  heads. 
They  scampered  aimlessly,  far  and  near,  their 
heels  a-tingle  with  mischief,  poking  their  noses 
into  all  sorts  of  out-of-the-way  places  and  having 
a  lot  of  terrifying  experiences,  getting  frightened 
at  everything  that  could  possibly  be  made  into 
anything  scary.  They  were  so  seriously  deter- 
mined on  investigating  all  alluring  possibilities 
that  not  a  moving  thing  escaped  their  vigilance, 
from  the  bees  in  the  bushes  to  an  aeroplane  that 
flew  overhead ;  nor  would  they  have  failed,  if  pos- 
sible, to  help  it  along  with  their  paws  or  turn  it 
over  and  make  it  go  the  other  way.  Occasionally 
they  would  stop  and  scent  a  flower  or  perhaps 
glance  warily  about,  Indian  fashion,  pretending 
to  see  nothing,  but  raising  their  eyes  with  a  sweet 
pretence  of  innocence  to  the  trees,  especially,  I 
noticed,  if  there  happened  to  be  a  twitter  among 
the  branches.  In  fact,  they  appeared  to  think 
there  was  something  truly  wonderful  about  those 
trees — the  plain  ordinary  green  ones  with  the 
usual  number  of  fine  feathery  limbs  in  which  the 
birds  love  to  rest  their  wings.  Further  than  that, 

[66] 


A1DA  AND  SAADI 
however,  their  conduct  was  absolutely  blameless, 
and  as  we  all  scurried  home  I  was  comfortably 
convinced  that  the  matutinal  walks  of  these  dainty 
elegances  were  simply  due  to  an  overpowering 
longing  for  the  green  things  of  earth  and  the 
fresh  air,  possibly  from  the  tree  branches,  but 
just  the  love  of  being  out  of  doors,  with  a  special 
desire  to  enjoy  the  wonderland  beauties  of  our 
own  woody  range,  in  which  we  ourselves  took  great 
pride. 

While  still  in  their  tenderest  baby  days,  the 
kittens  developed  such  an  ardent  talent  for  cling- 
ing together  in  all  their  activities  that  they  seemed 
like  two  branches  swayed  by  the  same  breezes. 
It  was  more  than  the  usual  natural  bond  of  kinship, 
even  between  twins ;  more  like  something  prenatal, 
as  if  one  thought  instigated  all  their  doings.  They 
ate  together,  walked  together,  snoozed  together, 
and  were  never  separated;  to  see  one  was  always 
to  see  both,  and  everything  that  happened  took 
place  in  pairs.  They  breathed  one  common  at- 
mosphere of  trust  and  faith  in  each  other.  Their 
little  feminine  hearts  may  have  been  often  false 
to  us,  but  to  one  another  they  were  always  faith- 
fully loyal,  enduring  with  unswerving  devotion 
in  this  oneness  everything  good  or  bad  that  was 
theirs  to  share.  In  living  mischief  and  in  the  joy 
of  their  great  discoveries,  they  were  always  as  of 
one  mind.  Ever  frolicking  together  in  the  sun- 
shine of  happy  days  and  generously  sharing  the 
sorrows  of  this  vale  of  tears  on  hard  ones.  As 
one  galvanized  body,  they  went  through  kitten- 
hood  in  good  and  bad  ways,  suffering  and  enjoy- 

[67] 


AffiA  AND   SAADI 

ing  in  the  everlasting  bond  of  an  alliance  offensive 
and  defensive. 

Their  good  qualities  were  so  many,  and  their 
allegiance  to  the  entire  household  apparently  so 
faithful,  that  it  came  as  a  sickening  disappoint- 
ment when  a  little  murdered  bird,  the  result  of 
their  prowess,  was  brought  and  laid  at  my  feet. 
After  this  there  was  no  further  mystery  or  doubt 
as  to  their  inward  viciousness,  and  that  it  was 
pure  murder-lust  just  for  the  delight  in  the  killing 
was  shown  by  their  never  once  offering  to  eat 
their  victims.  Sometimes  they  would  bring  them 
home  and  simply  "lay  them  away,"  and  some- 
times leave  them,  all  bloody,  under  the  trees. 
Feeling  that  I  was  the  one  most  responsible  for 
the  morals  of  these  little  heathens,  and  the  one 
most  blamed  for  their  wickedness,  an  ardent  mis- 
sionary fever  began  to  burn  in  my  indignant  blood, 
and  I  secretly  determined  that  there  should  be 
one  hand,  strong  enough  in  love,  to  at  least  dis- 
cipline this  scandalous  feature  in  their  otherwise 
gentle  breeding.  If  our  little  aristocratic  babies 
could  not  live  in  friendship  with  our  feath- 
ered beauties  of  the  woods,  they  should  be  forced 
by  some  kind  of  vigorous  training  to  leave  them  in 
peace;  for  we  loved  the  little  birds,  and  their 
sweet  songs  in  our  woods,  too  much  to  be  recon- 
ciled to  any  such  disloyal  warfare  upon  them. 

It  was  with  a  sinking  sensation  that  I  sadly 
and  quietly  followed  the  marauders  one  morning 
as  they  stole  off  for  their  usual  * '  after-breakfast " 
diversion  of  seeing  things  in  the  woods.  I  was 
firmly  resolved  to  find  out  how  and  where  the  fledg- 

[68] 


AIDA  AND   SAADI 

lings  were  captured  and  cut  off  so  untimely  in  their 
innocent  careers  and  took  good  care  that  the  kit- 
tens did  not  see  me  or  know  that  I  was  waiting 
grimly  in  hiding  until  I  could  catch  them  red- 
handed,  and  there  could  be  no  mistake. 

At  last  my  time  came,  when  the  degenerates 
were  both  crouched  near  a  tree,  with  wide  open, 
flaming  eyes  cruelly  set  on  a  little  chirping  song- 
ster. Then  as  they  crept  forward  with  eager  desire 
and  all  the  cunning  stealth  of  plain,  common, 
feline  ancestry,  and  were  just  ready  to  spring  on 
their  unconscious  game,  I  burst  upon  them  in  such 
a  frenzy  that  it  frightened  them  into  a  state  of 
absolute  dismay.  But  before  they  could  feint, 
the  pair  of  abject  and  convicted  criminals  were 
hustled  back  to  the  house  in  terrible  disgrace, 
and,  hardening  my  heart,  such  discipline  and  ar- 
gument was  administered  as  was  deemed 
expedient. 

Naturally  better  things  had  been  expected  from 
such  beautiful,  saint-like  looking  cherubs,  who  did 
not  have  to  make  a  living  by  their  wits,  and  this 
depraved,  red-flame  blood  lust  in  their  being  was 
a  double  surprise  and  disappointment. 

Under  surveillance,  these  injured  innocents 
became  very  artful  and  sly  and  would  resort  to 
all  sorts  of  deception  in  order  to  avert  suspicion. 
If  caught  loitering  about  their  favorite  hunting 
ground,  the  hypocrites  would  dally  about  in  gaping 
pink  yawns  of  boredom,  in  the  most  indifferent 
manner,  or  play  Jack  and  the  Bean-stalk  by  dart- 
ing madly  up  the  trunk  of  a  tree  and  chasing  their 
own  tails  down,  just  to  show  that  joyous  exercise 

[69] 


AIDA  AND   SAADI 

was  the  chief,  and  in  fact  the  only  reason  for  their 
fondness  for  the  woods.  There  was  no  doubt 
but  that  they  understood  perfectly  their  trans- 
gression, and  if  they  were  discovered  in  the 
delirium  of  the  hunt,  we  faithfully  did  our  dark 
and  dreadful  duty.  But  they  took  their  discipline 
so  meekly  that  it  was  simply  heartbreaking  to 
see  their  tiny,  shrinking  little  bodies  after  such 
rudeness,  hiding  in  out-of-the-way  places,  with 
terrible  fear  in  their  big  scared  eyes,  that  were 
wont  to  look  up  at  us  in  such  love  and  expectancy. 
The  touching  resignation  of  these  tiny  criminals 
under  our  correction  made  us  feel  almost  ashamed 
of  our  power,  especially  as  they  seemed  so  su- 
perior to  it.  Moreover  it  did  not  seem  to  make 
any  lasting  impression,  nothing  resulting  from 
such  painful  experience  to  both,  in  the  way  of  re- 
form, that  could  be  detected  by  the  naked  eye.  But, 
as  we  explained  to  them  over  and  over  again,  if 
we  had  only  been  able  to  correct  this  one  little  evil 
in  their  hearts  and  make  them  half  as  penitent 
and  guileless  as  their  beautiful,  remorseful  eyes 
looked,  our  pains  would  have  been  rewarded  by 
their  becoming  the  very  best  of  citizens. 

Bearing  so  calmly  and  patiently  our  severity, 
as  if  suffering  an  injustice,  they  fortunately,  bore 
no  malice  in  their  baby  hearts  and  neither  punish- 
ment nor  disgrace  could  suppress  for  long  their 
indomitable  spirits.  Although  they  acted  for  the 
time  being  as  if  their  hearts  were  broken,  smashed 
beyond  repair,  as  soon  as  it  was  deemed  advisable 
for  consolation  to  be  administered,  they  were 
coaxed  back  to  life  and  soon  were  as  fearlessly 

[70] 


A1DA  AND   SAADI 

and  beautifully  happy  as  ever,  trifles  of  this  kind 
passing  as  a  little  summer  cloud  in  their  otherwise 
blue  sky.  From  their  humble  resignation  they 
evidently  took  this  peculiar  morality  on  the  part 
of  big  mortals  as  being  just  one  of  the  mysteries 
included  in  their  cup  of  experiences  in  this  queer 
world  they  were  trying  to  fathom,  but  in  which 
they  had  expected  only  sunshine. 

There  were  times  when  they  escaped  vigilance 
and,  in  spite  of  the  retribution  which  we  surely 
had  impressed  upon  them  would  follow  as  inev- 
itably as  a  shadow,  they  would  abandon  themselves 
recklessly  to  their  one  dissipation  and  we  were 
helpless  before  their  defiance. 

These  disgraceful  pets  of  ours  were  known  to 
come  back  from  such  gory  adventure,  un- 
shamedly,  with  the  blood  of  their  victims  still  wet 
on  their  lips,  telling  the  horrible  tale  without 
apology.  After  such  a  stirring  incident  they 
usually  seated  themselves  very  close  together  on 
the  porch  steps,  singularly  calm,  their  two  hearts 
beating  as  one,  their  little  pink  noses  at  the  same 
angle  high  in  the  air,  in  that  habitual  attitude  of 
" united  we  stand  or  united  we  fall"  which  was 
always  and  ever  their  bond  of  fellowship,  and 
simply  await  unflinchingly  for  developments.  If 
an  accusing  finger  was  raised  at  these  demure 
hypocrites,  their  meek  expressions  were  simply 
angelic,  as  if  they  were  just  waiting  for  halos. 
Under  threatening  and  closer  scrutiny,  they  would 
sanctimoniously  lift  their  round,  reproachful  eyes 
and  insolently  lick  their  impudent  chops  as  if 
scornfully  saying : 

[71] 


A1DA  AND   SAADI 

' '  Oh,  lady,  you  surely  do  not  suspect  us  of  hav- 
ing seen  your  birds  this  morning!" 

Their  innocent  and  demure  air  was  positively 
exasperating  and  we  were  in  despair  over  the 
prowling  slaughter  which  made  our  hearts  ache. 
In  the  stress  of  many  other  affairs,  however,  we 
feared  that  we  would  be  obliged  to  give  up  our 
strenuous  watchfulness  and  let  these  murderous 
little  beasts  pursue  their  deadly  war  on  the  feath- 
ered tribe  as  they  willed,  when  one  joyful  day  we 
discovered  in  the  column  of  "What  others  have 
found  out,"  a  permanent  remedy. 

A  quiet  resolve  was  taken  and  another  trip 
to  town,  and  now  these  dainty  little  aristocrats 
go  about  in  quest  of  experience  with  gleaming 
collars  about  their  throats,  upon  which  dangle 
little  tinkling  bells,  so  that  they  never  escape  the 
music  which  gives  warning  of  their  approach. 
From  their  look  of  appeal  and  almost  of  terror 
when  these  warnings  sounded  the  first  alarm,  I 
imagine  that  it  has  lessened  their  confidence  in  the 
kindness  of  mankind  and  taken  a  great  deal  of 
joy  out  of  .the  world  for  them. 

Ordinarily  they  submit  to  the  fatalism,  looking 
bored  to  death,  but  there  are  occasional  lapses 
when  their  fighting  blood  struggles  and  they  are 
excited  almost  to  madness  by  the  everlasting 
jingling.  Then,  again  they  will  sometimes  lift 
their  appealing  eyes  in  hopeless  despair  to  our 
unyielding  authority,  opening  their  mouths  as  if 
to  make  a  feeble  protest  in  tremolo,  but  in  their 
guilty  helplessness,  failing  to  utter  a  sound.  But 
as  no  miracle  of  love  happens  in  the  way  of  re- 

[72] 


AlDA  AND  8AADI 

"On,   LADY!     You   DO   NOT   SUSPECT 

Us  OF  HAVING  SEEN  ANY  or  YOUR  BIRDS  THIS 

MORNING!" 


A1DA  AND   SAADI 

lease,  they  have  become  of  necessity  philosophers, 
and  though  doubtless  they  would  give  the  world 
to  be  rid  of  these  tink-tingles  of  law  and  order 
that  follow  every  movement,  they  are  martyrs 
and  have  learned,  even  in  their  brief  experience 
of  life,  to  make  the  best  of  the  inevitable.  The 
longer  their  residence  in  this  world,  the  greater 
their  education  will  be  concerning  the  mystery  of 
a  higher  power  which  arranges  things  so  as  to 
baffle  a  helpless  kitten 's  best  laid  pleasant  plans, 
even  kittens  with  marvellous  bushy  tails  with  a 
double  kink  in  them. 

Nothing  so  completely  subdued  these  incorrig- 
ibles  and  hurt  their  pride,  as  a  horrible  catas- 
trophe they  once  inadvertently  brought  upon 
themselves,  which  came  near  being  a  tragedy. 
It  was  the  first  time  in  their  play  paradise  that 
they  ever  met  with  absolute  rebuff  and  it  com- 
pletely subdued  them  for  the  time  being.  One  hot 
summer  day,  on  coming  in  from  one  of  their 
tramps  abroad,  very  warm  and  very  thirsty,  they 
caught  sight,  both  at  the  same  instant,  of  a  basin 
of  gleaming,  tempting,  creamy  white  paint,  which 
a  careless  workman  had  left  standing  there  for 
a  moment.  Mistaking  it  for  milk  which  doubtless 
our  thoughtful  kindness  had  prepared  for  their 
thirsty  coming,  they  uttered  a  little  flute-like  duet 
of  thanks  and  made  a  rush  to  their  fate,  side  by 
side,  as  the  animals  went  into  the  ark,  not  stop- 
ping for  even  a  smell,  so  unsuspecting  and  great 
was  their  confidence.  Down  deep  went  their  little 
aristocratic  noses  into  the  sticky  mass,  so  deep 
they  could  hardly  extract  them! 

[73] 


AIDA  AND   SAADI 

We  were  very  sorry  for  these  foolish,  self- 
confident  little  victims  and  they  were  very  sorry 
for  themselves.  A  strange,  unwonted  calm  fell  on 
our  bungalow,  and  it  was  really  one  of  the  saddest 
times  for  all,  humans  as  well  as  kittens.  Until 
the  paint  wore  off  their  faces  and  whiskers,  it 
was  an  interval  of  quiet,  in  which  there  was  no 
make-believe  humility,  but  in  which  the  culprits 
were  really  bowed  to  the  earth  in  shame  and  with 
indigestion. 

Truly,  it  is  a  hard  world  for  even  innocent 
little  sinners! 


[74] 


MAROONED 


MAROONED 

IT  WAS  midsummer  and  the  city  sweltering 
in  an  overpowering  heat  wave,  but  in  the  coun- 
try there  were  cool  retreats  and  a  fulness  of 
verdure  that  were  calling  with  enticing  insistence 
to  all  the  suffering  city-bound  folk  to  come  to  their 
bounty  and  rest.  To  one  weary  country-bred 
woman,  the  alluring  summons  sounded  clear  with  a 
healing  message  to  her  tired  nerves  and  jaded 
brain.  It  was  the  seductive  call  of  the  big  blue 
sky  and  the  pure  air  of  her  own  old-fashioned 
country  home,  and  her  whole  soul  responded  with 
an  intense  longing.  But  she  was  one  of  the  city's 
plodders,  chained  by  the  inevitable  to  the  tread- 
mill, and  she  could  only  picture  in  her  hopelessness 
what  such  happiness  might  be,  by  straining  her 
misty  eyes  in  memory  to  years  gone  by. 

She  stood  by  the  one  window  of  her  own  room 
in  that  big  lonesome  boarding  house,  apparently 
gazing  idly  out  on  the  bit  of  sun-baked  street  her 
limited  view  commanded,  but  she  had  closed  her 
eyes  and  was  totally  unmindful  of  the  last  hot 

[77] 


MAEOONED 

slanting  rays.  Her  whole  being  was  enthralled 
by  that  "back  home'7  call  that  was  stirring  her 
heart.  She  was  so  utterly  tired  of  the  heat  of 
walls  and  pavements  and  the  city's  seething  rush 
and  endless  clang,  that  her  eyes  and  brain  seemed 
bursting  and  her  very  soul  cried  out  for  that  rest- 
ful spot  in  the  country  she  still  called  home.  She 
knew  how  sweet  and  still  the  misty  woods  were 
"back  there "  in  the  soft  twilight  of  this  hour,  and 
how  the  air  was  damp  and  fragrant  with  the  scent 
of  the  tangled  undergrowth.  In  homesick  longing 
she  recalled  the  blessedness  of  the  evening  glow 
of  the  setting  sun  trembling  upon  the  hills  of 
this  girlhood's  home  in  its  parting  benedic- 
tion, leaving  a  sabbath-day  stillness  on  all  the 
land.  She  could  still  hear  the  musical  tinkling 
of  the  bells  on  the  lowing  cattle,  as  they  ambled 
home  from  the  pasture,  in  the  lengthening 
shadows,  filling  the  air  with  the  rich  warm  breath 
of  the  hot  clover  they  had  been  feeding  on.  These 
homey,  country  memories  were  like  a  fresh  de- 
lightful breeze  blowing  on  her  burning  heart  and 
opened  up  entrancing  visions  which  stretched  far 
back  to  happy  days  when  there  had  been  plenty, 
and  no  need  of  battling  with  the  struggling  crowd 
of  the  city. 

Under  the  thrilling  delight  of  these  crowding 
memories,  she  was  for  a  few  blessed  moments 
transported  to  this  home  of  her  desire,  and  the 
sweetness  of  it  nearly  broke  her  heart.  With  a 
sigh,  however,  she  remembered  the  present  and 
the  throbbing  glare  of  her  surroundings,  realizing 
how  worse  than  foolish  and  how  hopeless  was  her 

[78] 


MAEOONED 

discontent  with  things  "that  are."  Impatiently 
she  lifted  the  heavy  hair  from  her  hot  forehead 
and  winked  back  the  stinging  tears,  and  was  just 
about  to  turn  resolutely  from  the  window  to  take 
up  the  practical  things  of  life,  with  a  brave  make- 
believe,  when  she  caught  sight  of  two  big,  round, 
gleaming  eyes  looking  up  at  her  from  the  dejected 
little  garden  beneath  her  window.  There  was 
nothing  very  striking  or  attractive  about  these 
eyes  except  their  resolute  intensity,  and  that  they 
belonged  to  a  very  small  cunning  kitten,  sitting 
with  all  four  paws  tucked  under  his  body  and  his 
tail  wrapped  neatly  about  him,  patiently  gazing 
up  at  the  window  with  concentrated  wistfulness, 
hoping  for  recognition.  As  he  caught  the  lady's 
tardy  glance,  he  gave  a  cordial  and  friendly  mew 
without  moving  a  muscle  of  his  body  and,  as  there 
was  no  response,  another  mew.  This  time  the 
lady,  longing  for  the  companionship  of  anything 
alive,  could  not  resist  a  grateful  and  hearty  re- 
turn of  his  friendliness,  and  throwing  the  window 
wide  open,  she  invited  him  to  enter.  Instantly, 
with  a  clever  spring  and  a  curious  twist  of  his 
legs,  he  landed  on  the  window  ledge,  clear  of  the 
garden  below,  and  was  caught,  with  a  soft  little 
cry  and  cuddled  tight  with  the  warm  downy  fur 
against  her  cheek,  in  a  frenzy  of  overwhelming 
delight. 

Every  one  knows  that  a  city  boarding  house 
is  no  place  for  pets,  and  in  this  particular  one 
there  was  a  law,  as  of  the  Medes  and  Persians, 
rigid  and  inflexible,  that  there  should  be  no  dogs 
or  cats.  So  it  was  with  a  guilty,  beating  heart 

[79] 


MAROONED 

that  she  revelled  in  even  these  few  stolen  moments 
with  this  dear  little  comforter  that  carried  her 
back  to  the  days  of  her  youth  and  the  days  when 
there  were  always  cats — and  cats  aplenty.  When 
she  released  her  little  visitor  from  her  arms,  he 
sniffed  about  the  room,  reconnoitering  every  nook 
and  corner,  as  is  the  fashion  of  cats,  and  after  a 
thorough  and  careful  inspection  of  everything, 
settled  down  with  a  mew  of  approval  into  his 
favorite  position  of  rest,  all  four  paws  under  him, 
having  evidently  decided  to  stay.  But  the  lady 
knew,  and  feared,  and  confiding  to  him  the  restric- 
tions of  the  place,  gently  placed  him  on  the  window 
ledge,  telling  him  to  scamper  for  his  life  into 
hiding.  He  dashed  away  at  breakneck  speed  and 
the  lady  thought  he  was  gone  forever.  But  to  her 
surprise  and  delight,  on  returning  to  her  room 
after  business  hours  next  day,  there  was  Mr.  Kitty 
sitting  on  the  ledge  outside  her  window,  in  his 
favorite  position  of  "warming  his  toes,"  as  if  by 
previous  arrangement.  Of  course  he  was  invited 
in,  snuggled  and  fed.  Fortunately  the  lady's  win- 
dow was  in  the  back  of  the  house,  in  a  rather 
secluded  corner,  so  she  could  carry  on  these 
clandestine  meetings  without  discovery. 

It  grew  to  be  the  regular  thing,  that  the  kitten 
should  be  there  each  night,  sitting  just  outside 
the  window  like  the  Peri  at  the  Gate,  patiently 
waiting  for  his  lady's  return.  In  this  way  he  laid 
such  persistent  siege  to  her  heart  that  she  finally 
had  to  surrender,  permitting  him  an  established 
place  in  her  home  and  in  her  affections,  but  under 
certain  restrictions.  Although  there  was  the  im- 

[80] 


MAEOONED 

passable  barrier  of  expressed  thought  between 
them,  he  could  look  into  her  eyes  and  wistfully 
divine  her  desire.  In  this  way  he  quickly  learned 
that  it  was  only  in  the  evening  that  he  could  be 
admitted  into  the  brightness  of  her  society,  and 
even  then,  only  with  the  greatest  caution.  After 
he  had  once  grasped  this  mental  warning  he  for- 
ever after  honored  it  with  the  most  careful  con- 
sideration. 

An  evening  came  when  the  tall,  thin-faced  cap- 
tain, with  the  winds  of  many  a  sea  on  his  cheeks, 
was  in  port,  and  the  indulgement  of  his  long-estab- 
lished habit  of  calling  on  the  lady  in  the  boarding 
house.  The  anticipation  of  these  regular  visits  had 
lain  in  the  sturdy  captain's  heart  until  it  had  blos- 
somed into  a  cheering  romance  and  he  boldly 
dreamed,  during  his  lonely  night  vigils,  of  a  pos- 
sible fireside  that  might  sometime  be  kindled  and 
waiting  to  welcome  him  on  his  return  from  his 
voyages.  This  little  "comfort  beacon"  he  was 
building  in  his  mind  made  his  stays  in  this  port 
of  great  consequence  to  him.  But  the  heart  of  the 
lady  was  a  port  of  happiness  the  captain  had  not 
yet  been  able  to  invade  as  it  was  not  a  sailor's 
life  that  the  lady  thought  she  would  like  to  share. 
Some  day,  somehow,  she  hoped  to  return  to  that 
happy  land  in  the  country  she  remembered,  where 
she  would  pitch  her  modest  tent  and  live  forever 
after,  happier  even  than  the  proverbial  fairies. 
But  the  big,  courageous  captain  was  gentle  and 
generous  in  loving,  and  willing  to  wait. 

On  the  captain's  first  call  after  reaching  port 
this  time  he  found  the  kitten  duly  installed  as  a 

[81] 


MAEOONED 

permanent  member  of  the  evening  circle,  and  on 
account  of  the  lady's  evident  partiality  for  her 
favorite,  he  being  always  anxious  to  please  her, 
tried  to  make  friends  with  him.  To  the  lady's  sur- 
prise, the  cat  persistently  eluded  the  captain's 
demonstrative  wooing.  Perhaps  it  was  instinct 
that  told  him  of  a  certain  jealous  impatience  in  the 
captain's  heart  that  he  should  be  there  taking  so 
much  of  the  lady's  attention;  or  perhaps  it  was 
because  the  captain  offended  his  dignity  by  teas- 
ing him,  in  a  friendly  way,  by  pulling  his  tail ;  or 
perhaps  it  was  just  because  he  called  him 
" pussy,"  which  to  any  civilized  cat  must  be  rather 
galling. 

Anyway,  they  did  not  seem  to  get  along  to- 
gether at  all  nicely  and  on  the  captain's  evenings 
the  cat  developed  a  decided  and  hitherto  unknown 
kink  in  his  temper.  He  would  wait  for  and  submit 
like  a  gentleman  to  the  captain's  rough  stroke 
of  greeting,  but  that  was  the  limit  of  his  politeness, 
and  any  familiarity  beyond  this  would  bring  a 
wicked  gleam  to  his  sea-green  eyes  and  an  ominous 
thud  of  his  tail. 

The  lady  felt  their  mutual  irritation  and  think- 
ing to  interest  the  captain  in  her  pet  and  to  smooth 
their  rather  stormy  friendship,  told  him  of  the 
kitten's  great  fondness  for  water,  a  very  unusual 
trait  in  cats,  as  they  generally  dread  getting  even 
'their  feet  wet.  She  told  how  this  cat  really 
dissipated  in  water,  loving  to  play  with  the  strag- 
gling lengths  of  the  garden  hose  and  in  the  puddles 
it  made,  often  getting  himself  thoroughly 
drenched,  and  sometimes  even  played  at  swimming 

[82] 


MAEOONED 

across  a  shallow  pool  until  he  came  to  some  high 
place  where  he  could  perch  and  dry  his  bedraggled 
self.  Having  such  a  bond  as  their  mutual  fond- 
ness for  water,  they  ought  by  right  to  be  the  best 
of  friends,  she  said. 

When  the  time  came  for  the  captain  to  sail 
again,  to  the  lady's  great  surprise,  he  begged  her 
to  let  him  have  the  kitten  for  a  passenger,  telling 
her  that  they  needed  a  mascot  on  board  ship.  He 
assured  her  that  her  "best  beloved "  had  just  the 
special  qualities  to  make  a  dandy  sailor,  and  loving 
the  water  as  he  evidently  did,  would  doubtless 
take  kindly  to  the  life. 

The  captain  hesitatingly  pondered  in  his  heart 
if  the  time  were  ripe  to  ask  for  another  passenger, 
the  one  in  all  the  world  whom  he  thought  would 
make  life's  voyage  sweet  and  complete,  but  he  in- 
stinctively felt  that  the  lady  would  not  have  it 
that  way,  and  in  wisdom  asked  only  for  the  cat. 
Secretly  she  wondered  why  the  captain  had  asked 
for  the  company  of  the  cat,  as  they  plainly  were 
not  greatly  attached  to  each  other,  and  selfishly 
she  wanted  to  keep  this  dear  little  friendly  kitten 
all  to  herself.  Yet  there  was  always  the  secret 
of  his  unlawful  transgression  on  forbidden  terri- 
tory and  the  fear  of  discovery;  and  more  than 
all,  the  heartbreaking  fact  that  time,  over  which 
there  was  no  control,  would  bring  him  the  mis- 
fortune of  becoming  just  a  big,  homeless,  skulking 
city  cat.  These  considerations,  and  a  desire  to 
provide  a  good  home  for  her  pet  far  away,  recon- 
ciled her  to  the  separation,  although  it  gave  her 
a  big  heart-ache  to  think  how  she  would  miss  him. 

[83] 


MAEOONED 

So  it  was  arranged  that  the  captain  should 
have  his  mascot.  On  the  day  of  sailing  the  lady 
herself  took  him  to  the  ship,  as  she  wanted  to  be 
quite  sure  that  he  was  carried  aboard  gently  and 
safely  and  that  he  was  induced  to  stay  there  with 
as  little  fright  as  possible.  She  was  also  glad  to 
give  the  captain  this  little  flattering  attention  of 
a  last  good-bye  and  bon  voyage,  which  hint,  if  the 
poor  captain  had  not  been  too  downcast  at  the 
parting,  might  have  made  him  feel  that  perhaps  he 
had  been  a  little  too  timid  in  asking  for  only  one 
passenger.  When  at  last  she  cautioned  him, 
with  a  pitiful  little  break  in  her  voice,  to  have 
patience  and  use  only  gentleness  with  this  trusting, 
helpless  little  shipmate  she  was  so  basely  betray- 
ing, it  came  near  bringing  about  a  climax.  As 
the  devoted  captain  held  her  small  hands  clasped 
tightly  in  his  strong  ones,  a  burning  flood  of  love 
flushed  his  cheeks  under  their  coat  of  tan  and 
his  snappy  blue  eyes  blurred,  as  he  solemnly 
swore,  in  a  voice  not  quite  under  control,  that  he 
would  be  ever  faithful  to  her  admonition,  to  her, 
to  the  cat  and  to  anything  she  held  dear.  Had 
there  been  time,  in  his  almost  overpowering 
emotion,  the  candid  mariner  might  then  and  there 
have  ventured  his  fate.  However,  the  tension  of 
the  instant  passed,  and  in  the  confusion  of  the  last 
few  moments  there  was  not  again  time  or  oppor- 
tunity for  tender  words,  especially  as  the  lady's 
whole  attention  seemed  taken  up  with  the  cat  and 
in  solicitous  anxiety  as  to  whether  he  would  be 
contented  and  develop  a  liking  for  skippers  and  a 
skipper's  life.  So  in  the  final  moment  of  clashing 

[84] 


MAROONED 

bells,  splashing  hawsers  and  the  settling  down 
of  the  engine  to  real  business,  the  last  flickering 
farewell  was  only  a  quick  grasp  of  hands,  which 
somehow  seemed  to  carry  with  it  a  new  hope,  and 
the  call  of  "all  ashore, "  left  the  captain's  heart 
still  fluttering  with  only  the  next  time  to  look  for- 
ward to. 

It  was  a  very  sullen  kitten  that  the  lady  had 
left  on  the  lower  deck  after  the  last  desperate 
squeeze  she  had  given  him.  As  she  turned  to  take 
her  last  look  back,  there  he  sat  on  his  haunches, 
as  motionless  as  an  Egyptian  mummy,  amid  his 
new  surroundings,  but  game,  maintaining  a  lofty 
dignity  to  the  last  in  spite  of  perplexity,  dismay 
and  wrath. 

As  the  great  ship  swung  clear  of  the  pier  and 
turned  her  clean-cut  prow  toward  the  mists  of  the 
ocean,  the  lady  wiped  the  blinding  tears  from  her 
eyes  and  waved  her  handkerchief  bravely  as  a 
last  admonition  to  the  cat,  and  in  adieu  to  the 
captain,  who  was  now  in  command,  alert  and  busy, 
all  sentiment  forgotten. 

All  on  board  a  sailing  vessel,  from  the  captain 
down,  love  pets  of  every  kind,  but  during  the  first 
hours  of  the  ship '&  getting  under  way,  when  all  is 
confusion  and  bustle  and  everybody  busy  with  the 
ship's  important  affairs,  there  is  no  time  for 
trifles.  Naturally  the  new  passenger  was  for- 
gotten for  the  time  being  and  left  to  his  own  de- 
vices and  for  the  ocean  to  do  its  own  work  with 
him,  in  its  own  way,  until  things  had  settled  down 
into  the  daily  routine.  When  this  time  arrived, 
the  cat  was  past  all  overtures  of  any  kind  and 

[85] 


MAEOONED 

occupied  exclusively  with  his  own  resentment,  the 
anger  of  his  betrayal  having  by  this  time  entered 
too  deeply  into  his  being  for  him  to  accept  any 
kind  of  peace-offering.  He  was  insensible  to  all 
caresses  and  disdained  all  offers  of  friendly  ac- 
quaintance, and  from  the  rank  rebellion  brooding 
in  his  gloomy,  unforgiving  eyes,  it  was  plainly 
evident  that  he  was  not  enjoying  his  ocean  trip. 
Although  he  had  soon  found  his  sea  legs,  he  had 
also  found  en  route  a  very  wicked  temper  in  think- 
ing over  the  injustice  of  the  situation,  shanghaied 
and  deserted  in  this  heartless  manner. 

The  men,  now  that  they  had  the  time,  tried  in 
every  way  to  make  up  to  him  but  coaxing  of  all 
kinds  proved  of  no  avail,  the  awful  bitterness  of 
his  injury  making  him  immune  to  any  sort  of  cajol- 
ery, and  he  treated  them  all  with  a  calm  and  per- 
sistent air  of  scorn.  They  tried  to  tempt  him  with 
every  kind  of  cat  dainty,  but  in  an  attitude  of  sullen 
hostility  he  would  have  nothing  to  do  with  them, 
venting  his  ill-temper  on  all  alike  and  confining 
his  dependence  in  the  eating  line  to  the  cook,  who 
merely  threw  him  scraps.  His  angry  resentment 
was  too  deep  and  too  hopeless  for  any  comforting ; 
he  merely  wanted  to  be  let  alone,  if  he  was  doomed 
to  stay  in  this  dungeon,  and  to  live  his  own  sullen, 
desolate  life,  in  resenting  everything. 

His  former  freedom  among  gardens  and  roofs 
made  the  limitation  of  even  this  big  craft,  a 
miserable  home  for  one  of  his  outdoor  habits, 
and  although  he  had  all  the  ship's  mice  for 
diversion,  there  was  time  and  time  for  thoughts 
deep  and  resentful.  As  he  was  unconfmed 

[86] 


MAEOONED 

and  had  full  range  of  the  ship,  on  an  early  tour  of 
investigation  he  discovered  a  porthole,  always 
open  to  the  sun  in  possible  weather,  which  seemed 
to  attract  him,  as  a  light  will  draw  a  traveler, 
lost  in  the  dark.  This  he  decided  on  as  his  favorite 
resting  place  during  the  day  and  the  sailors,  know- 
ing that  he  had  become  fully  accustomed  to  the 
monotonous  swaying  of  the  boat,  and  in  consider- 
ation of  his  strong  prejudices,  let  him  take 
possession  undisturbed.  Here  he  would  sit  and 
"let  his  mind  work"  in  brooding  abstraction, 
gazing  by  the  hour  in  wide  open  revolt  at  the 
gray  blankness  of  the  sea,  too  dreary  and  hopeless 
to  sleep.  Perhaps  it  reminded  him  of  other  times 
and  of  another  window  where  he  had  been  wont  to 
sit  in  happy  anticipation  of  the  coming  of  his 
lady.  However  it  was,  this  window  had  a  strange 
fascination  for  him  and  day  after  day,  when  he 
was  not  roaming  drearily  about  the  ship,  he  would 
sit  here,  a  sad  still-life  study.  With  wide,  unwink- 
ing, gloomy  eyes,  hour  by  hour  he  would  follow  the 
broad  expanse  of  the  desolate  waves  to  the  empty 
horizon,  eating  his  homesick  heart  out  in  grim 
endurance  of  his  fate. 

One  awful  day  he  was  caught  unawares  and  his 
career  came  near  ending  tragically.  The  ship, 
without  the  slightest  warning,  made  a  sudden  lurch 
and  he  was  unceremoniously  tumbled  out  of  his 
resting  place  with  a  splash,  into  the  waves  that 
were  racing  along  the  smooth  black  sides  of  the 
ship.  An  alarm  was  immediately  given  and  in  five 
seconds  everyone  on  board  knew  what  had  hap- 
pened. The  captain  received  the  information  with 

[87] 


MAROONED 

a  few  sailor  expletives,  nautical  and  to  the  point, 
and  growled  something  about  "not  being  worth 
it,"  but  ordered  "all  hands  to  the  rescue,"  and 
the  middies  responded  valiantly.  One,  more  ven- 
turesome than  the  rest,  without  pausing  to  count 
the  odds,  stripped  and  leaped  boldly  into  the  dan- 
gerous depths.  The  rest  of  the  crew  hung  breath- 
less over  the  rail,  watching  their  comrade  make  his 
desperate  struggle  with  the  buffeting  waves,  which 
sucked  at  every  ounce  of  his  youthful  will  and 
strength.  There  was  an  instant  of  sickening  sus- 
pense when  he  sunk  straight  down  clear  out  of 
sight.  But  quickly  his  head  shot  up  again  above 
the  swirl  of  water  and  as  he  shook  the  brine  from 
his  nostrils  and  eyes  and  struck  out  powerfully 
with  his  arms,  there  was  seen  between  his  teeth 
the  motionless  cat  held  fast  by  the  neck.  The  small 
boat  was  lowered  and  the  hero  was  picked  up  and 
helped  aboard. 

The  cat  did  not  show  a  symptom  of  life,  as  they 
laid  him  on  the  warm  sunny  deck  and  applied 
"first  aid,"  and  it  looked  for  a  time  as  if  the 
shock  to  his  nerves  and  the  long  salt  bath  had  done 
their  worst.  But  the  determined  mettle  of  this 
hard-shell  spirit  was  not  so  easy  to  extinguish 
and  as  life  surged  back  into  nerve  and  muscle,  and 
he  struggled  back  to  consciousness,  they  found 
he  was  there  with  all  of  his  nine  lives  wide  awake 
and  still  in  good  working  commission.  One  would 
have  thought  that  after  such  an  appalling  doom 
had  all  but  closed  in  on  him,  he  would  have  ap- 
preciated his  good  luck  and  the  true  value  of 
having  such  heroic  comrades,  and  would  have 

[88] 


MAROONED 

shown  some  thankfulness  for  the  risk  one  of  them 
had  run  to  save  his  life.  On  the  contrary,  although 
he  had  learned  to  keep  away  from  the  porthole, 
a  deeper  gloom  than  ever  settled  upon  him,  and, 
taking  this  unfortunate  accident  as  an  added  in- 
sult, he  treated  them  all  with  more  than  his  usual 
scorn. 

The  cat's  peculiar  characteristics  of  temper 
made  him  not  only  marked,  but  famous.  The  very 
independence  and  aloofness  of  his  dull  life  made 
him  tantalizingly  popular  with  the  young  fellows, 
and  in  their  leisure  hours  they  were  continually 
seeking  him  out  to  pass  the  time.  They  thought 
it  great  fun  to  tease  him  to  furious  anger  and 
then  laugh  at  his  quivering  rage,  but  after  they 
had  had  enough  of  this  kind  of  entertainment  they 
would  never  let  him  go  back  to  seclusion  without 
trying  their  very  best  to  coax  him  to  good  temper. 
They  never  succeeded  in  this  commendable  pur- 
pose, however,  even  with  the  most  heroic  efforts, 
and  would  have  hotly  resented  any  insinuation 
that  their  pastime  might  possibly  be  a  cruelty. 
The  captain,  too,  was  guilty  of  loving  to  display 
the  cat's  tabasco-like  temper,  being  quite  proud  of 
the  strong  personality  shown  in  one  so  ugly  and 
vicious  and  still  one  so  delightfully  entertaining. 

During  their  ship's  stay  in  an  English  port, 
the  captain  entertained  on  board  a  brother  officer, 
whose  ship  happened  to  be  in  at  this  time,  and 
teasing  the  cat  until  he  exhibited  his  fierce  char- 
acteristics was  one  of  their  chief  after-dinner  di- 
versions. The  brother  officer  was  very  much  en- 
tertained by  the  captain's  hospitable  amusement 

[89] 


MAROONED 

and  took  a  greedy  fancy  to  the  insolence  and  hardy 
independent  ways  of  his  extraordinary  pet.  He 
liked  the  animal  so  much  that  he  coveted  the 
mettlesome  prize  as  one  that  would  make  things 
lively  in  dreary  hours,  and  begged  the  captain  to 
loan  him  for  just  one  voyage ;  but  the  captain  was 
indignant  at  such  a  proposal  and  refused  to  con- 
sider it  for  a  moment.  It  would  be  breaking  a 
sworn  and  solemn  covenant  with  his  lady,  and 
besides,  the  cat  was  the  pride  of  the  whole  crew, 
notwithstanding  their  raillery,  and  he,  and  in  fact 
all  on  board  ship  could  not  get  along  these  days 
without  this  important  member  of  their  mess,  who 
was  getting  more  disagreeable  and  interesting 
every  day.  Shameful  as  such  baseness  was,  the 
brother  officer  watched  his  chance,  and  as  his  ship 
was  to  sail  first,  he  had  the  advantage.  The  cap- 
tain was  wholly  unsuspicious  of  his  friend 's  secret 
intention  and  the  first  intimation  he  had  of  his 
treachery  was  when  he  went  on  deck  to  wave  him 
farewell.  As  the  brother  officer's  ship  sailed  ma- 
jestically by  the  captain  saw  him,  evil  and  smiling, 
on  the  bridge,  and  as  he  returned  the  captain's 
salute,  he  lifted  the  stolen  cat  in  triumph  in  his 
arms.  The  captain  stood  rigid,  the  dark  blood 
creeping  into  his  tanned  cheeks  and  leaping  to  his 
brain,  while  his  keen  eyes  narrowed  and  scintil- 
lated with  the  glitter  of  cold  steel  as  he  watched 
the  ship  sail  slowly  past. 

To  this  masterful  seafarer,  there  was  no  sense 
of  humor  in  the  childish  joke  his  facetious  friend 
had  played  on  him.  At  the  moment  he  was  too 
angry  for  his  whirling  brain  to  think  out  any 

[90] 


MAEOONED 

plan  to  avenge  this  malicious  injury,  but  he  had 
always  found  himself  commander  in  every  situa- 
tion and  his  nature  was  not  the  kind  to  forget. 
He  swore  with  clenched  teeth  that  he  would  get 
even  with  this  traitorous  fellow  officer  even  if  it 
cost  him  his  life.  The  man  was  beyond  reach  of  his 
wrath  and  strong  arm  at  present,  as  he  was  sailing 
for  distant  shores,  and  with  him  the  unfortunate 
cat.  But  the  captain  would  bide  his  time,  his  anger 
growing  with  each  hour,  and  there  would  surely 
come  a  day  of  reckoning  in  which  it  would  be 
better  for  the  officer  had  he  never  even  dreamed 
this  "practical  joke." 

This  strange  cat,  unfriendly  and  militant,  that 
had  never  shown  affection  for  anyone  since  that 
horrible  day  when  he  had  been  so  cruelly  deceived 
by  the  lady  on  whom  he  had  lavished  his  whole 
heart,  seemed  despite  his  every  effort,  to  make  con- 
quests where  he  least  desired  and  to  be  bound  to 
lead  a  sailor's  life  to  the  bitter  end,  in  spite  of  him- 
self. This  last  outrage  of  fate  roused  him  to  des- 
peration and  took  all  semblance  of  civilization 
from  his  manner.  It  was  war  and  no  quarter  from 
henceforth,  with  all  the  world  against  him.  Big, 
strong,  and  full  of  salty  battle,  he  certainly  had  not 
been  stolen  for  a  pet,  and  it  would  have  made 
the  lady  weep  could  she  have  known  the  fate  and 
seen  the  warlike  wreck  of  her  once  gentle  friend, 
although  she  would  never  have  recognized  in  this 
belligerent,  savage  old  salt,  the  kitten  she  had 
cuddled  and  loved. 

These  new  sailor  tormentors  soon  discovered 
that  one  of  the  cat's  diverting  peculiarities  was  a 

[91] 


MAEOONED 

strong  and  expressed  dislike  to  whistling.  He 
hated  the  shrill  notes  with  a  hate  that  made  him 
tremble  and  which  seemed  to  rouse  the  very  devil 
in  him.  Even  the  lowest  notes  would  wake  him 
from  a  sound  sleep,  and  with  angry,  low,  throaty 
growls,  which  sounded  remarkably  like  swearing, 
he  would  make  a  sudden  rush  at  the  offender  with 
eyes  that  flamed  green,  and  gleaming  teeth  set 
as  if  he  had  a  tigerish  desire  to  spring  at  the  man's 
throat  and  settle  for  all  past  insults,  then  and 
there.  Once  in  the  desolation  of  his  soul,  he  did 
bite  fiercely  at  his  tormentor's  shoe;  and  it  would 
certainly  have  fared  ill  for  any  of  them  had  he 
dared  make  a  determined  attack. 

But  the  sailors,  finding  sufficient  entertainment 
in  the  impotent,  savage  temper  they  were  able  to 
rouse,  bore  no  malice  in  their  hearts  nor  any 
animosity  toward  the  cat  for  his  violent  dislike 
of  them.  So  when  they  had  teased  him  to  the 
limit  they  would  make  all  sorts  of  amends  in 
friendly  overtures,  which  were  met  with  snorting 
scorn,  and  then  indifferently  allow  him  to  go  back 
to  hiding,  in  peace.  It  seemed  nobody's  special 
mission  to  prevent  this  cruelty  and  the  cultivation 
of  all  that  was  brutal  and  ugly  in  the  poor  out- 
raged animal's  nature  or  to  see  whether  this  con- 
tinual tormenting  were  a  real  agony  or  if  his 
habitual,  infinite  wretchedness  were  being  made 
greater  than  necessary.  It  was  simply  a  thought- 
less love  of  diversion  in  which  the  helpless  pay 
tribute  to  power.  So  in  misery  the  endless  days 
dragged  into  weeks  and  it  seemed  to  the  cat,  so 
sick  of  sea  life  and  sea  smells,  as  if  the  world  would 

[92] 


MAROONED 

never  end.  Although  he  was  beginning  to  show 
the  wear  of  his  long,  dull,  sullen  revolt,  neither  dis- 
appointment nor  ugly  temper  had  broken  his  fierce 
sense  of  injury  or  his  indomitable  spirit.  Helpless 
as  his  position  was,  he  never  cowered  before  his 
adversary,  but  ever  maintained  an  air  of  cool  con- 
tempt and  defiance,  counting  always  on  a  chance. 
Every  day  on  board  ship  holds  unknown  possi- 
bilities and  always  there  is  hope  for  those  who 
watch  and  wait,  and  the  cat's  weary  rage  was 
waiting — slowly,  silently,  steadily, — but  just  wait- 
ing. 

In  the  early  spring,  the  ship  ran  into  a  rough 
channel  and  fell  on  continued  evil  winds  which  at 
last  developed  into  a  terrible  gale.  Wild,  stinging 
wisps  of  salty  wind  came  roaring  right  out  of  the 
north,  flapping  and  bellying  the  sails  and  lashing 
the  ship  about  like  a  plaything  in  a  fury  of  wind 
and  water,  until,  with  rudder  gone,  totally  dis- 
abled and  helpless,  it  was  being  sent  with  each 
pounding  breaker  nearer  and  nearer  the  danger- 
ous, rocky  shore.  The  only  ones  to  witness  the 
screeching  horror  of  this  black  night  were  two 
helpless  old  lumbermen,  who  had  been  roused  from 
their  sleep  by  the  ship's  signals  of  distress,  and 
had  run  down  from  their  camp  to  the  pounding 
beach.  But  they  were  powerless  to  answer  the 
crew's  beseeching  cries  or  to  help  them  in  any 
way,  as  they  were  alone  in  these  wilds  and  had 
no  means  at  hand  of  rescue.  Through  the  black- 
ness of  the  storm  they  could  only  imagine  the  dis- 
tress, as  they  heard  the  roar  of  the  heavy  black 
demons,  fighting  the  stubborn  craft  steadily  with 

[93] 


MAEOONED 

wind  and  water  as  if  it  were  an  evil  thing  which 
they  were  bent  on  destroying.  At  last,  with  ter- 
rible strength,  as  if  impatient  of  this  impotent 
play,  the  water  rose  in  a  tremendous  wave,  boom- 
ing like  thunder,  took  the  battered  fighter  in  its 
arms,  lifting  her  high  from  the  heavy  sea,  and 
flung  her  pounding  on  a  jagged  rock  that  held  and 
crunched  her  with  its  cruel  teeth  like  a  hungry 
beast,  scattering  the  splinters  far  and  wide.  The 
men,  fighting  to  the  end  for  their  lives,  were  jerked 
and  flung  about  like  chips,  their  screams  and 
prayers  drowned  in  the  roar  and  pounding  of  the 
storm,  until  the  greedy  sea  once  again  broke  over 
the  rock  and  swallowed  their  screams  and  mangled 
bodies  in  a  swirl. 

By  daylight  the  storm  was  over  and  the  sea  as 
calm  as  if  there  had  been  no  tragedy,  the 
surf  beating  steadily  on  the  rocky  shore  its 
solemn  requiem  for  its  deadly  passion  of  the 
dreadful  night.  The  angry  tempest  had  done  its 
very  worst  and  now  the  sun,  so  cruel  in  its  bright- 
ness, danced  joyously  over  the  shining  water,  show- 
ing in  the  silver  gray  sheen  of  the  sea  the  broken 
hulk  of  the  wreck  still  clinging  to  the  bald  rock 
with  but  one  sign  of  life.  This  was  the  rather 
pathetic  figure  of  the  sailor  cat,  sitting  with  his 
head  high  in  the  air,  on  one  of  the  highest  timbers, 
well  out  of  the  water,  sunning  himself,  his  nos- 
trils dilating  and  swelling  as  they  filled  with 
familiar  land  smells.  His  overwrought  nerves 
seemed  wondrously  calm  under  the  harrowing  cir- 
cumstances, and  in  fact,  on  close  scrutiny,  there 
seemed  to  be  a  decided  air  of  grim  triumph  in  his 

[94] 


MAEOONED 

lonely  figure  seen  silhouetted  against  the  vast  ex- 
panse of  blue  sky  and  dancing  waves.  He  had 
discarded  entirely  his  sullen  manner  and  one 
could  almost  see  the  hungry  gleam  of  joy  in  his 
wide-open,  level  eyes,  as  they  looked  and  lingered 
on  the  welcome  sight  of  the  heautiful  world  of 
grass  and  green  growing  things  so  near.  This 
sweet  and  subtle  fragrance  blowing  in  his  nostrils, 
sent  its  solace  straight  to  his  embittered  heart 
and  gave  him  the  comfort  and  confidence  that  he 
would  soon  be  one  of  the  little  furry  creatures 
scampering  in  the  woodsy  haven.  The  steady 
throb  and  creak  of  the  horrible  vessel  was  no 
more,  and  he  had  at  last  been  left  free,  once  more 
to  work  out  his  own  destiny,  and  his  heart,  in 
spite  of  his  unmoved  exterior,  was  thumping  in 
triumph,  and  his  whole  body  tingled  with  ex- 
citement. How  delightfully  safe,  and  steady,  and 
firm,  the  cool  retreats  of  this  forest  world  looked 
to  his  sea-sick  eyes!  And  over  all  brooded  an 
enchanting  silence,  with  no  sound  of  everlasting 
machinery,  just  an  occasional  sweetly  tremulous 
note  from  the  blue  above,  and  a  chirp  from  the 
depth  and  mystery  of  the  pungent  land  fragrance 
below,  that  could  be  heard  above  the  heavy  beat- 
ing of  the  surf. 

His  heart  bounded  in  response  to  the  possibil- 
ities of  this  Promised  Land  of  his  long  desire. 
But  there  was  a  wide  space  of  flashing,  angry, 
turbulent  ocean  between  him  and  this  secure, 
friendly  world  of  plenty  and  enticing  sweet-smell- 
ing shrubs:  a  hard  problem  and  a  fearsome  risk 
for  an  ordinary  cat  and  a  difficult  one  for  even 

[95] 


MAEOONED 

this  desperate  creature  with  his  fearless  nature 
and  the  proclivities  of  a  duck.  But  in  cringing 
fear  of  some  further  stroke  of  relentless  fate, 
that  might  come  along  and  rescue  him  enslaving 
him  for  another  dismal  voyage  of  excruciating  ex- 
perience, he  determined  not  to  be  overtaken  by 
any  such  horrible  doom,  but  to  make  that  stretch 
of  water  at  any  cost  and  to  make  it  without  delay. 
He  picked  his  way  gingerly  to  where  the 
water  washed  the  timbers,  quivering  with  antic- 
ipation, gathering  all  the  strength  of  his  big  bones 
and  tough  muscles  for  a  leap  to  the  shore  rocks, 
and  then — hesitated !  It  was  a  deadly  plunge  and 
his  heart  was  doing  double  quick  in  fear,  but  the 
compelling  power  of  the  near-by  free  range  of 
greenness,  with  its  sweet  breath  of  liberty,  fired  him 
anew  with  the  strength  of  despair.  With  a  hoarse 
cry,  that  seemed  to  come  from  the  bottom  of  his 
throat,  and  every  muscle  stiffened,  in  fierce  reck- 
lessness he  at  last  launched  himself  into  the 
washing  waves  and  all  his  whole-bodied,  lusty 
youth  was  put  into  the  life  and  death  struggle. 
It  is  vouchsafed  that  some  great  mysterious  power 
shall  watch  over  and  guard  helpless  animals, 
brave  with  desire,  and  it  carried  this  stout  heart, 
that  would  have  died  but  for  it,  straight  to  the 
shore  and  back  to  the  living  fertile  earth  he  loved, 
to  live  his  own  free  life  once  more  in  the  shadow 
of  its  satisfaction. 

The  cat  had  arrived  in  port  at  last  and  had 
thrown  off  the  fetters  of  his  tragic  fate  forever, 
going  into  the  mystery  of  the  wild,  where  no  curi- 
osity can  follow. 

[96] 


MAIDA 


MAIDA 

IT  WAS  when  Maida,  a  rarely  beautiful  Maltese, 
was  about  a  year  old  that  she  became  the 
mother  of  a  collection  of  variegated  little  mon- 
grel babies,  with  spotted  fur  of  all  sorts,  except 
one,  which  was  pure  white.  Maida  was  all  mother, 
and  very  proud  of  this  disreputably  mixed  pro- 
geny, but  evidently  especially  pleased  with  the 
white  one.  Her  preference  for  the  milk-white 
blonde  was  plain,  for  she  always  picked  this  one 
out  for  extra  care  and  scrubbing  during  the  short 
time  they  were  allowed  to  snuggle  together  in  the 
nursery  she  had  selected,  which  was  a  soap  box 
tucked  away  in  the  back  corner  of  the  stable  loft. 
But  this  is  a  cruel  world  for  little  unwelcome 
kittens  and  so  it  was  destined  that  this  shameful 
offspring  should  mysteriously  disappear,  and  the 
natural  instincts  of  Maida 's  big  mother-heart  be 
frustrated. 

On  the  afternoon  of  the  babies'  third  birth- 
day, after  only  a  short  absence,  the  devoted  mother 
came  hurrying  back  in  anxious  care  to  the  home 
box,  to  find  nothing  there  but  the  thick  straw 

[99] 


MAIDA 

bed.  There  were  no  little  bunches  of  soft  fur  to 
feed  and  cuddle  not  even  one  left  to  save  her  suf- 
fering swelling  breasts.  No  one  told  her  why  or 
where;  simply  the  cruel  fact  remained  that  she 
was  desolate,  her  home  empty,  and  her  babies 
gone.  Her  grief  over  this  heartless  depredation, 
so  inhumanly  human,  was  painful  to  witness. 
Frantically  she  called  in  long-drawn,  wailing  ca- 
dence for  her  babies,  from  morning  till  night,  in 
an  agonized  search.  Up  stairs  and  down,  in  and 
out,  her  mournful  meows  echoed,  until  everyone 
knew  of  her  trouble,  and  even  the  most  unsympa- 
thetic were  indignant  over  the  cruelty  of  it. 

All  of  a  sudden  Maida  ceased  her  mourning 
and  settled  down  into  quiet,  regular  habits  again. 
Everyone  drew  a  sigh  of  relief  at  her  serenity 
and  peace,  but  her  mistress,  more  curious  than 
the  rest,  determined  to  know  the  cause  of  her 
resignation  and  followed  her  to  the  loft.  What 
she  found  there  sent  the  cold  shivers  down  her 
spine,  for,  snuggled  to  the  poor  mother's  babyless 
breasts,  were  four  small,  ugly,  pinky-white  ratlets, 
with  long  tails  and  eyes  like  a  Chinaman's.  The 
consoled  mother  looked  up  at  her  mistress  with 
beating  heart  and  eyes  straining  with  such  plead- 
ing human  anxiety  that  there  was  no  mistaking 
that  they  held  a  challenge.  But  she  need  not  have 
feared  for  no  one  with  any  kind  of  feeling  could 
have  the  heart  to  let  anyone  interfere  a  second 
time  with  Maida 's  arrangement  of  a  family  how- 
ever grotesque  her  ideas  were  in  this  respect. 
Where  these  shocking  substitutes  for  her  own 
unpopular  babies  came  from,  where  they  were 

[100] 


MAIDA 

born  and  what  had  become  of  the  rightful  parent, 
no  one  but  Maida  will  ever  know,  as  they  were  the 
only  descendants  of  this  rather  curious  breed  of 
rodents  that  were  ever  seen  in  all  the  country 
round.  But  Maida,  the  kidnapper,  looked  proudly 
upon  them,  doubtless  as  her  one  white  offspring 
returned  fourfold,  and  neither  excused  nor  ex- 
plained. If  their  advent  was  dark  with  a  cruel 
deed,  no  one  knew  and  no  one  felt  that  they  had 
the  right  this  time  to  deprive  the  aching  breasts 
and  perhaps  a  conscience-stricken  heart  of  this 
compensation. 

As  the  numerous  rodents  grew  and  began  to 
take  notice,  they  became  quite  troublesome  to  the 
anxious  foster-mother,  for  they  were  wild  little 
things,  uncommonly  healthy  and  uncommonly 
restless  and  rather  fierce  as  well.  Time  proved 
however  that  they  were  the  very  best  specimens 
of  their  kind,  their  baby  coats  bright  and  shining, 
their  slim  wee  eyes  clear,  and  their  little  noses 
alert  with  the  most  furious  inquisitiveness.  It 
was  not  long  before  the  boldest  of  them  could 
climb  to  the  edge  of  the  box  on  an  investigating 
tour  into  the  attractions  of  that  little  surrounding 
world  of  theirs,  but  Maida  was  ever  on  the  alert, 
and  in  a  twinkling  would  seize  him  and  drop  him 
in  the  box  with  a  bump.  Poor  little  ratlet  would 
look  scared  to  death  and  rather  shaky,  but  Maida 
would  gently  lick  him  with  her  tongue,  purring 
in  the  dulcet  tones  of  a  cooing  dove,  until  she  had 
him  soothed. 

The  ratlets  grew  day  by  day  into  more  in- 
dependent and  astonishing  ways,  and  Maida 's  mis- 

[101] 


MAIDA 

tress  decided  that  this  rather  frisky  family  had 
better  be  transferred  to  more  commodious  quar- 
ters. So  the  rather  unique  nursery  and  household 
was  removed  to  a  large  empty  room  over  the 
stable,  where  they  could  have  plenty  of  room  and 
still  be  confined.  Mother-Maida,  doubtless  feel- 
ing that  she  had  troubles  enough  before,  did  not 
appreciate  this  freedom  of  a  wider  range  for  her 
lively  children,  and  would  have  been  glad  had  her 
mistress  been  less  generous.  Now  it  required 
double  the  effort  to  keep  her  strange  brood  from 
the  tempting  space  about,  and  her  strenuous  strug- 
gles to  restrain  them  within  the  prescribed  limits 
of  the  box  were  sometimes  painful,  but  always 
very  funny.  At  times,  in  a  very  frenzy  at  their 
confinement  the  small  rodents  would  bound,  all  in  a 
white  streak,  one  after  the  other,  over  the  edge  of 
the  box  and  all  over  the  room.  Then  poor  Maida 's 
maternal  excitement  and  her  efforts  to  drive,  carry 
or  frighten  them  back  to  their  home,  made  pan- 
demonium, the  ratlets  running  helter  and  skelter 
in  all  directions  and  Maida  after  them.  Catching 
one,  she  would  jump  back  into  the  box  with  it, 
leave  it  there  and  go  for  another,  but  before  she 
could  make  a  capture,  the  one  she  had  left  in  the 
box  would  be  scampering  in  gay  frolic  with  the 
others. 

This  rather  serious  game  for  Maida  of  ' '  in  and 
out"  would  go  on  until  her  nervous  system  was  a 
wreck  and  she  was  utterly  exhausted.  Finally 
realizing  that  her  efforts  to  subdue  her  riotously 
indecent  family  were  useless,  she  would  drop 
breathless  to  the  floor,  stretch  herself  in  a  streak 

[102] 


MAIDA 

of  sunshine  near  the  box,  and  survey  the  incor- 
rigible mites  with  disgust.  No  longer  pursued, 
the  fun  ceased  for  the  youngsters,  and  they  would 
come  to  where  she  was  having  a  little  interval  of 
peace,  and  nip  and  maul,  challenging  her  into 
another  contest,  playing  tag  up  and  down  her 
tail,  and  indulging  in  other  tantalizing  pastimes, 
until  even  her  self-sacrificing,  long-suffering  pa- 
tience could  no  longer  endure,  and  she  would  in- 
dignantly shake  every  one  of  them  off,  spring  to 
her  feet  with  a  contemptuous  meow  of  impatience, 
and  seek  another  place  for  relief.  Then  the  ap- 
parently conscience-stricken  little  rascals  would 
meekly  come,  one  by  one,  anxious  and  conciliatory, 
humbly  begging  her  notice,  scrambling  solicitously 
over  her,  and  by  and  by  the  four  tired-out  white 
beggars  would  be  sleeping  quietly  with  their  sharp 
little  noses  snuggled  in  the  soft  fur  of  her  body, 
all  love  and  forgiveness. 

Although  animal  children  are  generally  sup- 
posed to  be  much  better  behaved  and  to  cause 
their  mothers  less  anxiety  than  human  children, 
this  poor  foster-mother  was  kept  very  busy  dis- 
ciplining and  training  her  strangely  troublesome 
family.  She  truly  mothered  them,  not  as  adopted 
aliens,  but  as  the  real  thing,  and  taught  them  the 
proper  things  kittens  ought  to  do  and  ought  not 
to  do,  with  much  vigor  and  many  a  box  on  the 
ear ;  for  generally  what  the  rodents  wanted  to  do, 
seemed  to  be  just  the  thing  they  should  not  do 
in  the  progress  of  their  strange  education. 

One  day  the  closet  door  having  been  left  ajar, 
baby  ratlets  in  their  search  for  mischief,  climbed 

[103] 


MAIDA 

way  up  to  the  ceiling  and  perched  on  the  topmost 
strip  that  held  the  hanging  hooks.  Maida,  on  find- 
ing them  so  far  above  her  reach,  was  painfully  dis- 
tressed, meowing  and  making  the  greatest  kind 
of  a  commotion  in  trying  to  scramble  up  the 
smooth  wall  to  their  rescue,  as  she  thought.  The 
ratlets  seemed  to  be  heartlessly  indifferent  to  her 
anxiety  and  had  to  be  driven  from  their  lofty  roost 
by  the  mistress.  The  first  one  to  land  on  the  floor 
was  grabbed  by  the  enraged  cat  and  given  such 
a  shaking  that  he  wobbled  about  in  dizzy  uncon- 
sciousness for  several  minutes.  The  next  one 
she  caught  with  a  firm  paw,  as  he  was  scurrying 
back  to  the  box,  hoping  to  escape  his  punishment, 
and  held  him  tight  to  the  floor,  in  spite  of  his  whim- 
pering protest,  till  he  was  quite  still.  This  one 
lay  for  a  long  time  as  if  dead,  but  after  a  while 
he  slowly  lifted  his  giddy,  swimming  head  and 
crawled  patiently  and  sorrowfully  back  to  his 
bed,  and  never  again  did  any  of  these  naughty 
babies  attempt  to  break  this  strange  law  of  a 
strange  mother,  by  climbing  in  the  closet. 

Once  a  window  of  this  room  was  lowered  from 
the  top,  just  a  tiny  way  for  air.  Maida 's  mistress, 
happening  to  be  in  the  barn,  heard  a  great  meow- 
ing and  disturbance  going  on  in  their  room  over- 
head and  rushed  up  to  find  her  beloved  cat  rac- 
ing about  like  mad,  apparently  frantic  with  grief 
and  not  a  ratlet  in  sight.  The  lady  was  very 
much  puzzled  over  this  total  disappearance  of 
all  four  of  the  ratlets  and  imagined  all  sorts  of 
things,  even  the  worst,  and  started  in  to  investi- 
gate. In  her  search,  she  happened  to  glance  out 

[104] 


MAIDA 

of  the  window  and  there  on  the  roof  were  the 
whole  bunch,  plainly  going  mad  in  their  unusual 
freedom.  The  weather  was  splendid  and  they 
were  all  out  enjoying  it,  jumping  and  running 
on  the  separating  wall  in  mad  frolic,  apparently 
just  for  the  sake  of  falling  back  in  somersaults 
on  the  roof,  scuffling  and  doing  all  sorts  of  nimble 
acrobatics  in  reckless  stunts,  and  surely  making 
the  most  of  their  glorious  holiday  in  the  sunshine. 
The  window  was  no  sooner  raised  from  the  bot- 
tom, giving  Maida  a  chance,  than  she  dashed  out 
like  a  flash,  plainly  determined  on  revenge.  The 
instant  the  naughty  runaways  caught  sight  of  her, 
they  could  not  get  back  into  the  room  and  their 
box  quickly  enough;  they  raced  for  their  very 
lives,  stumbling  and  knocking  each  other  over  in 
their  eagerness  to  get  there,  fairly  shivering  in 
their  fright.  Maida  selected  one  poor  pink-eyed, 
trembling  sprinter  for  a  thorough  shaking  and  let 
the  others  profit  by  his  sorrowful  example,  saving 
herself  further  exercise. 

The  ratlets  lived  to  be  independent,  well-be- 
haved grown-ups,  with  wonderfully  polished  and 
silky  coats,  owing  to  their  frequent  and  thorough 
grooming  by  their  faithful  foster-mother,  who 
seemingly  never  grew  weary  of  her  maternal 
duties  or  their  companionship.  They  were  great 
successes  as  rats,  though  doubtless  Maida  had 
her  own  interior  disappointment  and  cat  wonder 
as  to  why,  with  such  faithful  bringing  up,  they 
were  not  animals  of  a  more  comforting  nature. 
Now  she  has  real  babies  of  her  own,  and  this 
time  there  is  no  mistake,  for  their  fur  is  pure 

[105] 


MAIDA 

Maltese,  so  her  mother  instincts  have  been  allowed 
legitimate  vent.  Her  alien  foster-children  have 
the  freedom  of  the  whole  country  and,  owing  to 
their  strange  adoption  and  the  zeal  with  which 
they  were  brought  up  in  the  way  good  kittens 
ought  to  go,  they  seem  irreproachable  in  behavior. 


[106] 


A  MEMORY 


A  MEMORY 

ONE  frosty  morning,  by  arguing,  reproaching 
and  beguiling  in  turn,  we  coaxed  from  under 
cover  of  a  heap  of  rubbish  in  the  alley,  one  of 
the  dirtiest  yellow  and  white  gutter  kittens  ever 
seen;  one  that  had  been  eyeing  us  timidly  and 
insolently  from  the  safe  protection  of  his  smelly 
hiding  place  for  several  days.  Gaunt,  miserably 
hungry  and  shivering  with  the  cold,  he  did  not 
respond  to  our  overtures  of  trying  to  make  him 
a  mite  happy  on  Christmas  day,  with  the  eager- 
ness one  would  naturally  expect.  When  he  did 
condescend  to  come,  his  steps  were  very  deliberate 
and  he  carried  himself  with  a  certain  sad  dignity 
as  if  he  had  found  the  cold  world  hopeless,  and 
had  shut  his  young  heart  against  all  trust.  From 
his  manner  it  was  more  to  politely  oblige  us  that 
he  came  at  all,  than  because  he  wished  a  merry 
Christmas  or  even  our  acquaintance. 

By  dropping  our  air  of  patronage  and  assum- 
ing a  respectful  one,  we  were  finally  able  to  cajole 
him  to  the  doorstep  and  at  last  to  the  warmth 

[109] 


A  MEMOEY 

of  the  kitchen  and  a  saucer  of  food.  Although 
he  was  not  a  bit  shy,  it  was  plainly  his  first  in- 
troduction into  the  interior  of  any  house.  Pie 
was  a  typical  alley  kitten,  and  probably  a  grace- 
less one,  born  in  the  gutter  with  no  pretensions 
to  breeding  or  even  good  looks.  But  with  all  this, 
a  lover  of  cats  could  plainly  see  that  he  was  not 
a  common  "yeller  cat"  but  had  a  superior  strain 
of  blood  in  his  veins  from  somewhere.  Young  as 
he  was,  it  gave  him  a  distinct  individuality  which 
impressed  us  from  the  very  first.  His  short  life 
had  in  all  likelihood  been  a  hard  one;  probably 
he  had  been  abandoned  in  infancy  and  obliged  to 
make  his  own  living  by  depredation,  and  knew 
only  the  cruelty  and  insult  of  a  homeless  alley 
existence. 

There  may  still  be  people  in  the  world — civil- 
ized people — who  do  not  care  for  cats,  but  we, 
liking  all  cats  and  fancying  the  calm  dignity  of 
this  one  in  particular,  were  at  once  in  hopes  he 
would  forsake  his  back-door  haunts  and  come  and 
live  with  us  as  our  very  own.  As  he  looked  wise 
enough  to  solve  life's  problem  on  almost  any  lines, 
we  tried  to  tempt  him  to  think  seriously  on  all 
the  comforts  our  home  afforded  and  the  life  of 
ease  and  luxury  it  would  bestow.  We  gave  him 
feasts  and  promised  him  all  sorts  of  other  good 
things,  if  he  would  only  abandon  his  former  dis- 
sipated ways  and  stay  with  us. 

He  was  always  such  a  very  serious  cat,  never 
seeming  to  have  a  kitten's  natural  playfulness, 
not  enough  to  even  chase  his  own  tail  once  in  a 
while  as  most  kittens  do.  We  never  could  coax 

[110] 


A  MEMOEY 

him  even  under  the  most  alluring  temptation  to 
be  otherwise  than  grave  and  tolerant  of  our  levity 
and  as  we  had  our  little  romps  with  him  we  called 
him  in  laughing  sarcasm,  "Jiminy  Christmas.77 
We  had  no  idea  of  giving  one  so  dignified  this 
trifling  name  permanently,  but  he  so  quickly 
learned  to  respond  to  it,  and  as  no  other  was  sug- 
gested more  appropriate  in  its  place,  it  was  grad- 
ually established  as  the  regular  name  by  which 
he  was  known. 

He  surely  was  a  most  welcome  addition  to  our 
household  and  we  tried  to  make  him  feel  this  and 
to  know  that  we  were  honored  by  his  stay.  Al- 
though he  was  growing  fat  and  beautifully  sleek 
and  was  most  friendly,  graciously  accepting  all 
that  we  gave,  but  giving  very  little  in  return,  we 
noticed  that  he  did  not  seem  quite  content  and 
at  ease,  but  was  restless,  as  if  some  previous  and 
neglected  affair  were  on  his  mind  and  calling  him 
elsewhere.  There  was  nothing  that  we  could 
actually  complain  of,  still  there  was  something 
comforting  and  permanent  that  was  lacking  in  his 
presence.  He  was  good — at  least,  part  of  him 
was  good;  but  we  had  no  idea,  as  we  came  to 
know  later,  of  that  other  part  that  was,  well- 
not  so  good.  At  the  time  all  we  could  see  was 
that  something  was  plainly  fretting  him,  some- 
thing chafing  him  almost  beyond  endurance. 
After  we  were  better  acquainted  we  found  that 
close  beneath  his  gentlemanly  exterior  lay  a  veri- 
table wild  and  vagabond  nature,  a  vagrant  an- 
cestral strain  that  nothing  could  tame.  His  queer 
combination  of  inheritances  was  the  cause  of  con- 

[in] 


A  MEMOEY 

stant  strife  in  his  nature,  and  the  vagrant  germ 
was  likely  to  break  out  at  almost  any  time  into 
attacks  of  "spring  fever,"  which  would  force  all 
ties  of  the  gentlemanly  part  to  the  wall  and  in- 
evitably he  would  fare  forth. 

We  tried  in  every  way  to  coax  him  into  con- 
tentment and  domestic  ways,  but  the  very  fact 
that  he  was  under  surveillance  and  obliged  to  do 
things,  even  for  our  loving  satisfaction,  was  ir- 
ritating to  him  and  made  the  "wild  strain "  chafe 
under  the  bondage.  He  seemed  to  try  to  please 
us  as  hard  as  we  tried  to  please  him,  and  ap- 
peared grateful  and  affectionate,  but  he  could  not 
hide  that  smoldering,  hungry  yearning  in  his  eyes 
nor  the  fact  that  he  was  tugging  continually  at 
the  chains  of  his  restraint,  waiting,  listening  and 
planning  some  sort  of  polite  escape,  respectability 
growing  more  and  more  irksome  every  day. 

Afterwards,  when  we  came  to  know  his  beset- 
ting sin  more  intimately,  we  gave  him  credit  for 
manfully  putting  up  a  good  fight  this  first  time 
against  that  vagrant  embryo  that  was  stirring  an 
almost  irresistible  desire  in  his  breast.  The  mi- 
gratory instinct  grew  more  insistent  day  by  day, 
doubtless  restrained  for  a  time  by  a  sense  in  his 
gentlemanly  nature  of  certain  obligations  due  us 
for  our  hospitality,  but  at  last  it  was  too  much  for 
his  politeness  even  and  with  a  hasty  " good-bye " 
and  a  "thank  you,  ma'am,  for  your  goodness "  off 
he  scampered  somewhere  out  where  he  could  be 
free,  and  into  the  uncertainty  of  his  former  tramp 
existence,  but  with  the  exquisite  joy  of  liberty 
speeding  his  heels. 

[112] 


. 

m, 


A  MEMOEY 

We  felt  very  sorry  and  really  quite  culpable 
in  not  having  been  able  to  offer  sufficient  induce- 
ment to  hold  this  tantalizing  little  vagabond.  Al- 
though we  did  not  wish  him  any  misfortune,  we 
did  hope  that  if  adversity  should  overtake  him  in 
the  mysterious,  hot,  irritating  madness  of  his 
desire,  he  would  remember  our  hospitable  roof, 
and  come  straight  back  to  us. 

He  must  have  had  an  unusually  good  time  and 
turned  himself  loose  recklessly,  for  it  was  many 
months  before  we  saw  him  again,  and  when  he 
did  appear  he  had  grown  to  full  and  magnificent 
cathood.  He  came  to  our  door  as  an  undoubted 
friend,  bubbling  over  with  vitality,  every  fiber 
in  his  body,  even  to  his  tail,  buoyant  with  pride 
and  action.  He  was  still  rather  superior  in  man- 
ner and  quite  sure  of  himself  and  his  reception, 
not  that  he  would  intrude  himself  upon  us,  but 
if  agreeable  to  all  he  would  "bide  a  wee." 

He  looked  as  if  the  open  road  and  the  chase 
had  afforded  him  more  than  a  sumptuous  living, 
for  although  well  weathered  by  his  tramp  life, 
he  was  as  chipper  as  ever  and  his  muscles  hard 
with  a  healthy  well-fed  leanness.  Evidently,  if 
we  wanted  this  little  savage  at  all  we  must  accept 
him  as  a  proposition  and  law  unto  himself.  And 
we  did  want  him,  feeling  sure  that  he  was  of  the 
right  sort,  with  merely  a  dash  of  mystery  and 
adventure  about  him.  He  was  made  more  than 
welcome,  and  his  toes  surreptitiously  buttered  ac- 
cording to  ancient  superstition,  a  process  said  to 
keep  cats  from  roaming.  He  graciously  settled 
into  the  old  ways,  accepting  our  love  and  forgive- 

[113] 


A  MEMORY 

ness  as  freely  as  it  was  given,  and  this  time  was 
good  enough  to  stay  with  us  for  several  months. 

As  week  succeeded  week  and  he  was  still  a 
contented  member  of  our  household,  showing  no 
signs  of  going  his  own  way,  we  felt  certain  the 
talisman  had  worked  and  grew  to  be  fairly  sure 
of  him.  We  really  believed  that  the  fleshpots  of 
servitude  had  opened  his  eyes  to  the  folly  of  his 
former  disreputable  ways,  and  that  in  pure  phys- 
ical content  he  would  now  settle  down  into  the 
easy  berth  offered  him  and  the  tameness  of  do- 
mesticity. 

But  it  seems  that  this  was  only  the  "  gentle- 
manly part, ' '  for  the  time  being  having  a  holiday, 
and  that  our  assurance  was  a  creation  of  our  own 
desire  and  doomed  to  disappointment.  The  time 
came  all  too  surely  when  he  began  to  show  a 
decided  weariness  of  walls  and  a  diminished  ap- 
petite for  things  cooked,  perking  his  ears  with 
a  curious,  listening  look  in  his  dark  eyes,  as  of 
constant,  waiting  expectation,  listening  to  some- 
thing calling  from  afar.  The  roaming  strain  in 
his  blood  ever  ran  true  on  its  glorious  course, 
and  it  was  not  long  before  his  days  were  empty 
and  life  too  unbearably  dull  under  the  ease  of 
our,  perhaps  too  lavish,  hospitality.  Much  to  our 
chagrin  he  plainly  showed  that  he  was  weary  to 
death  of  having  to  account  for  days,  and  being 
locked  up  nights. 

We  recognized  the  signs  and  knew  that  this 
was  one  of  his  periods  of  utter  revolt,  when  all 
clogging  connection  with  civilization  would  prove 
too  galling  in  comparison  with  the  joys  of  the 

[114] 


A  MEMOEY 

open,  and  knowing  the  nature  of  the  sledge  ham- 
mer that  was  pounding  in  his  breast,  stood  by  and 
watched  the  struggle  with  amused  interest.  We 
were  certain  that  we  had  given  him  the  sense 
of  the  restfulness  of  a  settled  home  with  its  com- 
forts, and  were  also  sure  of  having  gained  his 
gentlemanly  gratitude  and  affection.  But  "you 
never  can  tell,"  and  so  we  waited  and  wondered 
in  curious  uncertainty  as  to  the  outcome. 

Summer  passed,  and  it  was  not  until  the  leaves 
were  smitten  with  frost  and  falling  scarlet  and 
gold  in  the  autumn  woods  that  Jiminy  Christmas ' 
vagabond  blood  tantalized  him  into  faring  forth. 
The  free  way  in  which  the  cheery  chipmunks  and 
the  squirrels  were  scampering  among  the  naked 
tree-tops,  rattling  the  dry  branches  and  sending 
a  rain  of  nuts  on  his  great  playground,  set  the 
wheels  of  discontent  to  buzzing  so  fiercely  in  his 
roving  nature  that  it  actually  hurt  him  to  stay 
within  bounds.  We  felt  that  if  he  were  able  to 
resist  the  merciless  torment  this  time,  he  would 
indeed  be  a  warrior  worthy  of  laurel. 

In  the  end  the  lure  of  life  in  the  open  won; 
or  was  it  the  old  militant  alley  and  chummy  gut- 
ters? But  whichever  it  was,  the  summons  proved 
too  enticing,  and  so  one  evening,  half-apologet- 
ically,  as  if  dragging  himself  away  from  an  al- 
most overpowering  temptation  to  stay,  he  rubbed 
his  "Aufwiedershen"  about  our  feet.  We  watched 
him  fade  like  a  ghost  into  the  surreptitious 
joy  of  the  blue  gloaming,  carrying  his  tail 
with  an  air  of  regret  and  shame,  but  resolutely, 
and  quickening  his  pace  with  every  step,  never 

[115] 


A  MEMORY 

to  be  seen  again  until  all  hope  had  long  been 
given  up. 

As  the  months  and  finally  more  than  a  year 
passed  and  no  prodigal  returned,  we  feared  that 
he  had  shaken  the  dust  from  his  paws  and  the 
memory  of  our  home  from  his  mind,  forever,  and 
gone  the  final  way  of  all  such  vagabonds.  We 
were  honestly  puzzled  over  this  wild  independent 
streak  in  his  nature,  and  naturally  rather  indig- 
nant over  his  lack  of  appreciation.  Still,  his  next 
appearance  was  anxiously  waited  for  and  there 
was  never  a  day  that  we  did  not  look  and  hope 
that  out  of  the  mysterious  everywhere,  somehow, 
someway,  this  ungrateful  cat  would  come  back  to 
the  warm  spots  in  our  hearts,  and  the  empty  spot 
on  our  hearth  that  were  waiting  for  him. 

One  lovely  morning,  in  the  early  spring,  on 
going  out  on  the  back  porch  for  a  breath  of  the 
fresh  morning  world  and  a  general  survey  of 
things  blossoming,  little  did  we  dream  of  seeing 
our  renegade.  Yet  there  he  was,  sitting  modestly 
on  the  very  edge  of  the  farthest  corner,  as  if 
claiming  nothing,  nor  asserting  anything,  but 
actually  there,  come  back  to  us  from  the  mysteri- 
ous absence  of  a  whole  year. 

"And  is  it  you!"  was  the  rather  scornful  wel- 
come he  received. 

Naturally  the  feeble  irony  of  this  greeting 
was  lost  on  him  and  he  gave  us  a  smiling  "  good- 
morning,  "  with  a  "lovely  day  today"  sort  of 
expression,  and  our  pleasure  at  renewing  the  ac- 
quaintance was  as  great  as  the  surprise  he  had 
given  us.  We  could  scarcely  believe  our  eyes, 

[116] 


A  MEMOEY 

but  by  this  time  we  were  getting  used  to  this  cat's 
"dropping  in  on  us"  how  and  when  he  liked. 
He  was  quite  self-possessed,  making  what  we  con- 
sidered a  polite  apology  but  no  unusual  fuss,  ig- 
noring this  huge  blank  in  his  record  and  pretend- 
ing it  was  but  yesterday  that  he  had  stepped  out 
to  "look  at  things. "  His  superb  air  of  having 
no  recollection  and  being  so  stolidly  calm  over  it, 
and  having  no  consciousness  of  anything  to  ac- 
count for,  was  exasperatingly  characteristic.  But 
with  all  this,  there  seemed  to  be  at  first  a  question- 
ing, wistful  look  in  his  wide-open  eyes  as  they 
met  ours.  Not  that  he  was  at  all  humble ;  it  was 
rather  as  if  he  were  trying  to  fathom  the  depth 
of  his  depravity  in  our  estimation:  a  guilty,  un- 
certain, uneasy,  self-conviction,  as  if  feeling  his 
way  back  into  our  goodness  and  esteem. 

Although  he  had  made  himself  tidy,  after  the 
manner  of  cats,  he  looked  as  if  this  intervening 
year  had  not  been  entirely  good  to  him.  His  dis- 
reputable appearance  gave  proof,  that  however 
gentle  we  had  found  him  in  peace,  he  must  be 
terrible  in  war,  for  his  glossy  fur  was  soiled  and 
shabby  and  in  a  pitiable  state  of  rags  and  tatters, 
showing  the  scars  of  many  a  hard-fought  battle, 
but  honorable  battles  and  honorable  scars  we  were 
sure. 

Older  now,  and  as  one  who  had  experienced 
hard,  his  calm  eyes  held  in  their  dark  depths  the 
mystery  of  many  a  bandit  night  under  the  stars. 
He  was  like  the  "shabby  genteel,"  doing  his  pain- 
ful best  to  make  the  most  of  a  decidedly  disrepu- 
table appearance,  ignoring  all  things  that  were 

[117] 


A  MEMOEY 

even  suggestive  of  a  blank  page  unaccounted  for. 
He  was  still  plucky  and  sublimely  dignified  in 
that  impregnable  reserve  which  even  our  kind- 
ness had  never  been  able  to  penetrate,  but  there 
was  something  gone  from  his  old-time  militant 
buoyancy,  and  in  its  place  a  kind  of  desperate 
air,  as  of  one  who  assumes  a  bravado  of  happi- 
ness he  does  not  feel. 

This  time  he  manifested  a  decided  gratitude 
for  all  the  good  things  that  came  to  him.  As  his 
hollow  skeleton  filled  out  with  good  and  regular 
food,  and  his  relaxed  sinews  stiffened,  we  thought 
that  at  last  the  days  of  roving  and  the  vagabond- 
age of  lusty  youth  were  over  and  that  he  had  come 
to  a  realizing  sense  of  what  a  comfortable  old 
age  would  mean.  Surely  now  he  would  accept 
a  trifling  bondage  for  the  sake  of  peace,  rather 
than  yield  again  to  the  vague  uncertainty  of  ir- 
responsible freedom  and  the  disastrous  results 
he  had  plainly  experienced.  The  old  love  for 
the  prodigal  came  back  and  he  was  reinstated  with 
joy.  But  alas,  the  straight  and  narrow  path 
seemed  to  have  no  charms  for  this  incorrigible, 
and  his  case  seemed  hopeless.  Just  as  his  hollow 
curves  were  filling  out  into  decent  plumpness  and 
his  thick  glossy  coat  beginning  to  look  like  an 
aristocrat's  the  symptoms  of  the  inevitable  "part- 
ing of  our  ways"  were  again  apparent.  It  was 
the  usual  attack,  violent  and  urgent,  leading  him 
to  dare  and  defy  all,  even  death,  in  following  the 
beckoning  call. 

It  was  mortifying  to  us  that  he  should  even 
occasionally  prefer  the  low  company  of  his  alley 

[118] 


A  MEMORY 

associates,  and  the  shame  of  being  a  skulking 
gutter  shadow,  dodging  abuse,  but  that  he  should 
have  these  periodical  spells  of  the  "inevitable 
interval/'  unconscious  of  any  restraint,  wander- 
ing and  living  as  a  tramp  for  months  away  from 
us,  his  ways  and  life  entirely  shrouded  in  mystery, 
was  too  exasperating  even  for  our  loving  for- 
bearance. In  our  wrath,  we  determined  that  if 
he  went  this  time  from  our  home,  it  should  be 
forever.  We  had  lost  all  patience  with  his  de- 
lightful weakness  and  had  at  last  made  up  our 
minds  that  if  he  could  not  be  contented  to  remain 
this  time,  we  would  depose  him  everlastingly 
from  our  hospitality  and  erase  him  from  our 
hearts,  for  we  felt  that  we  were  wasting  our  af- 
fection and  anxious  sympathy  on  false  pretenses. 
In  our  high  estimation  of  him,  we  had  given 
him  credit  for  what  was  not  there,  and  an  appre- 
ciation far  above  what  he  had  proven  capable  of. 
We  were  baffled  and  perplexed  beyond  endurance 
by  this  strange  fascination  which  seduced  him 
with  such  passionate  persistence,  driving  him  from 
our  protection  into  great  spaces  in  his  life  which 
were  a  sealed  book  to  us.  During  all  these  years 
of  our  intermittent  friendship,  we  were  never 
able  to  solve  this  riddle.  It  was  as  if  he  heard 
some  compelling  challenge,  like  the  sounding  notes 
of  the  Pied  Piper,  calling  and  calling  him  from 
that  far-off  unknown,  and  try  as  he  would  to  op- 
pose it,  his  scandalous  legs  would  eventually  force 
their  independence  and  get  him  there  in  spite  of 
a  hostile  and  honorable  will.  There  was  some- 
thing so  piteously  appealing  in  the  cat's  evident 

[119] 


A  MEMOEY 

helplessness  to  combat  these  siren  summons,  which 
threw  him  into  a  white  heat  of  daring,  that  it 
finally  disarmed  our  antagonism.  Eesigned  to 
what  we  had  now  found  was  inevitable  we  compas- 
sionately waited  and  watched,  realizing  the  fierce- 
ness of  the  strife  that  was  raging  in  his  complex 
nature,  and  knowing  that  he  was  powerless  to 
thwart  it. 

This  time  the  battle  was  a  short  one,  for  he 
had  lost  the  shame  of  it,  and  had  not  the  strength 
or  desire  to  fight  it.  With  no  apology  but  with 
the  steady,  brooding  look  of  a  thousand  defiant 
devils  in  his  gray  eyes,  he  soon  made  a  hasty  es- 
cape, the  stiff  hair  lifting  eagerly  along  the  ridge 
of  his  back  as  he  set  out  again  on  the  long  weary 
road  that  was  forever  drawing  him  from  the  nar- 
row path  of  peace  and  rectitude.  He  had  evidently 
sunk  very  low,  even  in  his  own  estimation,  for 
our  last  glimpse  of  him  caught  him  adroitly  dodg- 
ing a  shower  of  rocks  well-aimed  by  the  eternal 
small  boy,  ever  on  the  lookout  for  such  targets, 
as  he  disappeared  over  the  alley  fence. 

We  gave  him  up  surely  this  time  and  mourned 
him  as  dead,  knowing  that  the  pluck  and  endur- 
ance of  youth  was  long  past.  His  wandering  ir- 
regular life  had  done  its  worst,  weakening  his 
one-time  rugged  frame  that  was  wont  to  withstand 
so  defiantly,  the  hardships  and  privations  of  a 
tramp  life. 

But  he  was  not  dead,  and  we  were  bound  to 
see  him  once  more  from  out  the  No-Where,  and 
to  have  the  satisfaction  of  knowing  that  this  long 
trip  was  his  last  and  his  wandering  days  over. 

[120] 


JIMINY  CHEISTMAS,  THE  FREE  SPIRIT 

BORN  FREE,  HE  KEPT  His  OWN  WANTON 

WILL  FREE  FROM  ENSLAVEMENT  TO  THE  END, 

LIVING  His  OWN  LIFE  IN  HONOR  AND 

HONESTY   IN    AN    OUT-DOORS 

ALL  His  OWN 


A  MEMOEY 

It  was  during  the  wee  small  hours  one  silent, 
frosty  night,  that  I  was  irresistibly  drawn  from 
my  dreams  and  from  my  bed,  and  stepping  to  the 
window  looked  out  on  the  sparkling  space  of  what 
seemed  to  be  the  deserted  roof,  flooded  in  the  un- 
clouded light  of  the  full  moon.  Quietly  and  with 
no  sense  of  abruptness,  came  stealing  on  the  heavy 
stillness  of  the  night,  a  mournful,  throaty  wail 
of  resignation  from  out  the  inky  shadow  made 
by  the  chimney.  This  desperate  cry  of  the  soli- 
tary cat  sounded  almost  human,  as  if,  seeing  me 
standing  there,  and  knowing  that  the  icy  doom 
had  overtaken  him,  he  just  wanted  to  let  me  know 
the  desolation  of  his  helplessness.  Peering  into 
the  shadow,  I  saw  crouched  there  in  a  strangely 
pathetic  manner,  our  wandering  Ishmael,  keep- 
ing a  lonely  night-watch  and  waiting  patiently  in 
the  cold  for — God  knows  what.  He  seemed  dazed 
and  terrified,  crouching  stiffly  and  staring  about 
him  with  wide-open,  frightened  eyes.  He  must 
have  known  that  the  darkness  was  close  upon 
him,  for  that  one  beseeching,  throaty  note,  un- 
speakably human  and  forlorn,  was  all  his  uncom- 
plaining wretchedness  uttered. 

Answering  to  my  coaxing,  he  straightened  his 
fast  stiffening  limbs  with  an  effort  and  dragged 
his  poor  weak  body  to  my  compassionate  caress. 
He  had  changed  pitifully  during  this  stay  away 
and  was  only  a  shadow  of  his  former  self  phys- 
ically. His  pride  and  might  were  all  gone,  but  he 
was  a  stoic  still,  enduring  what  he  himself  seemed 
to  know  was  death,  in  silent,  uncomplaining  misery 
but  with  a  green  spark  of  terror  blazing  in  his 

[121] 


A  MEMOEY 

fading  eyes.  I  was  glad  that  he  had  not  crawled 
away  to  some  secret  place  for  the  last  great  strug- 
gle alone,  but  had  come  to  us  and  to  our  sympathy 
in  his  final  need. 

I  soon  had  a  blazing  fire  and  as  he  feebly  felt 
its  warmth,  he  made  a  pathetic  effort  to  tidy  his 
poor  matted  fur,  in  which  he  had  always  taken 
such  pride,  especially  in  our  presence.  But  even 
a  few  licks  of  his  tongue  were  too  much  for  his 
failing  strength,  and  he  dropped  limply  to  the 
rug.  Once  he  turned  his  head  wearily  to  me  as 
if  to  express  his  gratitude  and  as  if  to  say,  "How 
glad  I  am  to  be  here."  Then  his  body  relaxed, 
the  terror  faded  from  his  eyes,  and  that  was  the 
end.  He  had  answered  the  summons  for  his  last 
journey  and  gone  out  into  the  darkness  without 
even  the  grace  of  repentance. 

Only  a  cat!  And  one  of  the  least  commend- 
able of  all  cats,  and  one  that  could  not  be  called, 
even  by  his  most  ardent  admirer,  a  worthy  cat. 
Yet  he  possessed  a  personality,  if  not  a  soul, 
glowing  with  the  great  American  burning  impulse 
of  liberty,  and  he  has  left  a  memory,  not  as  a 
failure,  but  as  one  who  made  good.  Born  free, 
he  kept  his  own  free  will  to  the  end,  living  his 
own  life  in  an  out-doors  all  his  own,  free  from 
enslavement  and  exultant  in  his  freedom.  He 
asked  absolutely  nothing  of  the  world,  but  took 
what  came  his  way  with  unassuming  composure, 
rising  above  the  temptation  to  yield  his  individ- 
uality in  serving  those  he  loved,  cherishing  some- 
where in  his  plucky  brain  a  pre-natal,  God-im- 
planted spirit  of  self-reliance  to  the  end. 

[122] 


A  MEMOEY 

Is  it  against  all  religion  that  God  might  per- 
haps let  such  a  pagan  bundle  of  unrepentance 
into  Somewhere?  Suaviter  in  modo,  fortiter  in  re. 

IB  there  aught  of  harm  believing 
That  some  newer  form  receiving, 
They  may  find  a  wider  sphere, 
Live  a  larger  life  than  here? 

That  the  meek  appealing  eyes 
Haunted  by  strange  mysteries, 
Find  a  more  extended  field, 
To  new  destinies  unsealed! 


[123] 


HERE  ENDS  THE  GREAT  SMALL  CAT,  AND 
OTHERS,  BEING  A  COLLECTION  OF  SEVEN 
TALES  FOR  CAT-LOVERS,  BY  MAY  E.  SOUTH- 
WORTH,  THE  TYPOGRAPHICAL  APPEARANCE 
DESIGNED  BY  JOHN  SWART,  PUBLISHED  BY 
PAUL  ELDER  AND  COMPANY  AND  PRINTED  FOR 
THEM  BY  THE  TOMOYE  PRESS,  SAN  FRAN- 
CISCO, NINETEEN  HUNDRED  AND  FOURTEEN. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 
BERKELEY 


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DEC  18  1947 


25  1947 


REC'D  CO 

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REC'D  LD 
FEB    41963 


LD  21-100m-9,'47(A5702sl6)476 


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